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DAVID  MORTON:  A  BIOGRAPHY 


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DAVID    MORTON 

A   BIOGRAPHY 


By 
BISHOP  ELIJAH  EMBREE  HOSS 

OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH,  SOUTH 


NASHVILLE,  TENN. 

PUBLISHING  HOUSE  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,   SOUTH 

SMITH   &   LAMAR,    AGENTS 

I916 


Copyright,  1916 

BY 

Hannah  W.  Morton 
All  Rights  Reserved 


%^' 


THIS  BOOK  IS  PUBLISHED  BY 
THE  FAMILY  OF  DAVID  MORTON 
AND  THE  EDITION  PRESENTED 
TO  THE  BOARD  OF  CHURCH  EX- 
TENSION OF  THE  METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL     CHURCH,     SOUTH 


329931 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I.                                  Pag.. 
Heredity  and  Environment i 

CHAPTER  n. 
Feeling  after  God  and  Finding  Him 21 

CHAPTER  HL 
Called  to  Preach  and  Answering  the  Call 29 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Itinerant  Preacher 36 

CHAPTER  V. 
Taking  a  Turn  with  the  Schools 78 

CHAPTER  VI. 
In  the  General  Conference 91 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Presiding  Elder — East  and  West 116 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Church  Extension  Secretary 143 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Closing  His  Career 193 

vii 


ILLUSTRATIO'NS. 

Pace  Page 

David  Morton  (Frontispiece) Title 

Marmaduke  Beckwith  Morton  as  a  Young  Man 6 

Marmaduke  Beckwith  Morton,  1796-1887 12 

Mrs.  Marmaduke  Beckwith  Morton 18 

Old  Courthouse,  Russellville,  Kentucky 26 

David  Morton  and  His  Brothers  in  Boyhood 32 

The  Knob,  Near  Russellville,  Kentucky 40 

Thomas   Bottomley 48 

Mrs.  Thomas  Bottomley 54 

In  the  Days  of  Their  Youth — David  Morton  and  Hannah 

Bottomley   62 

David  Morton's  Credentials  as  a  Minister 68 

The  First  Family  Group 74 

Russellville  Female  Academy 82 

Logan  College,  Russellville,  Kentucky,  about  1874 88 

Logan  College,  Russellville,  Kentucky,  in  1915 96 

Vanderbilt  Training  School,  Elkton,  Kentucky 104 

Eminent    Methodists no 

Old  Whitehall,  Montana 118 

Pioneer  Montana  Southern  Methodists 130 

First  Ecumenical  Conference 136 

The  First  Office  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 144 

We  Were  Boys  Together 150 

ix 


DAVID    MORTON 


Face  Pag« 

The  First  Church  Aided  by  the  Board  of  Church  Exten- 
sion      158 

Bishops  McTyeire  and  Kavanaugh 164 

The  First  Home  Owned  by  the  Board  of  Church  Exten- 
sion      172 

The  New  Home  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 178 

Three  Thousand  Eight  Hundred  and  Seventeen  Meth- 
odist  Churches 186 

David  Morton's  Desk 196 

E'en   Down   to  Old  Age — David  Morton  and   Mrs.   David 

Morton    202 

Morton  Memorial  Church,  Monteagle,  Tennessee 210 

The  Ancestry  of  David  Morton 214 

X 


CHAPTER  I. 

Heredity  and  Environment. 

TTHE  Church  of  Christ  has  no  richer  inheritance  than 
*  the  memory  of  her  great  and  good  men.  She 
could  better  afford  to  demoHsh  her  proudest  cathedrals 
and  to  give  up  all  her  material  possessions  than  to  oblit- 
erate or  to  forget  the  record  of  her  seers  and  saints. 
Out  of  pure  gratitude,  if  for  no  other  reason,  she 
ought  to  preserve  their  names  and  to  magnify  the 
work  that  they  have  wrought  in  the  earth ;  and  by  all 
considerations  of  practical  wisdom  she  is  bound  to  do 
the  same  thing.  For  from  the  recurring  contempla- 
tion of  their  deeds  she  gathers  fresh  inspiration  for 
the  achievement  of  her  own  tasks,  and  by  passing  on 
the  quickening  story  of  their  heroisms  to  future  gen- 
erations she  furnishes  the  most  effective  means  for 
perpetuating  and  maintaining,  alive  and  vigorous,  the 
great  pieties  of  the  world. 

It  is  with  these  thoughts  in  my  mind  that  I  have 
consented,  in  the  midst  of  many  and  exacting  duties, 
to  prepare  a  brief  biography  of  my  dear  and  honored 
friend,  David  Morton,  who  now  for  more  than  six- 
teen years  has  been  at  home  with  God.  What  I 
shall   say   about  him   will   come   straight   from   my 

I 


.   ,.,...,  PA  VfOVMORT  ON 

9fJ^\.^^/'.  \.  ;:ri   '.  . ;  _■ '—^ ;: _ 

heart.  In  the  ears  of  those  who  had  no  intimate 
acquaintance  with  him  my  words  may  sound  some- 
what too  eulogistic,  but  it  is  my  honest  intention  to 
set  down  nothing  save  the  simple  and  unvarnished 
truth.  That,  I  am  sure,  is  just  what  he  would  wish 
me  to  do.  In  the  course  of  a  long  life  I  have  met  no 
man  more  sincere  and  unostentatious  than  this  great- 
hearted Methodist  itinerant  and  none  less  likely  to  be 
pleased  with  the  poor  tribute  of  flattering  speech.  If 
he  could  speak  out  of  the  blessed  abode  into  which  he 
has  gone,  he  would  bid  me  keep  strictly  to  the  facts 
and  paint  him  precisely  as  he  was.  Moreover,  the  bare 
truth  about  him  is  good  enough.  Of  undue  praise, 
there  is  no  slightest  need. 

David  Morton  began  his  life  under  the  most  favor- 
able conditions.  He  was  born  June  4,  1833,  in  the  fine 
old  town  of  Russellville,  Logan  County,  Kentucky,  and 
bore  the  authentic  stamp  of  the  community  upon  his 
character  to  the  end  of  his  days.  The  country  round 
about  is  fertile  and  beautiful,  a  fit  seat  for  a  great  civili- 
zation. The  original  settlers  were  nearly  all  Virginians 
of  an  excellent  type,  not  rude  and  uncultured  frontiers- 
men, but  intelligent,  industrious,  honest,  patriotic,  and 
religious  citizens.  For  the  sake  of  the  better  opportu- 
nities which  it  offered  to  themselves  and  their  children 
they  had  moved  into  what  was  then  counted  the  far 
West;  but  they  had  brought  with  them  the  traditions 

2 


DAVID    MORTON 


and  ideals  of  their  old  homes  and  had  never  let  them 
slip.  While  more  or  less  affected  in  superficial  ways 
by  their  new  surroundings,  they  yet  remained  un- 
touched in  all  their  essential  characteristics.  It  would 
not  be  amiss  to  speak  of  them  as  "Virginians  of  the 
Wilderness."  Among  them  were  the  Broadnaxes,  the 
Butlers,  the  Hises,  the  Lewises,  the  Stewarts,  the 
Bibbs,  the  Mooreheads,  the  Caldwells,  the  Bowlings, 
the  Walkers,  the  Blakeys,  the  Barclays,  the  Breathitts, 
the  Edwardses,  the  Crittendens,  and  many  others  of 
like  standing.  From  these  families  in  succeeding  gen- 
erations have  come  many  men  distinguished  in  every 
walk  of  life — governors,  senators,  judges,  soldiers, 
doctors,  and  divines.  It  is  said,  in  fact,  that  Russell- 
ville  has  produced  more  men  of  marked  individuality 
than  any  other  town  in  the  State. 

In  this  fair  land  of  high-minded  and  honorable 
people  David  Morton's  family  stood  among  the  best, 
being  so  entirely  respectable  that  it  was  never  at  any 
time  necessary  for  them  to  consider  the  question  of 
their  social  position,  nor  to  put  on  pretentious  airs  of 
any  sort.  His  father,  Marmaduke  Beckwith  Morton, 
was  born  in  Louisa  County,  Virginia,  September  13, 
1796,  and  had  a  most  honorable  ancestry  running  back 
on  both  sides  of  the  house  to  the  early  days  of  the 
colony.  He  was  the  son  of  William  Jordan  Morton, 
the  grandson  of  Joseph  Morton,  and  the  great-grand- 

3 


DAVID   MORTON 


son  of  Captain  John  Morton,  Jr.,  of  Richmond  County, 
who  in  turn  was  the  son  of  John  Morton.  His  Chris- 
tian name  came  to  him  from  a  maternal  forefather. 
Sir  Marmaduke  Beckwith,  a  Yorkshire  baronet,  who 
crossed  the  sea  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  and  speedily  became  a  leading  citizen  and 
officeholder  in  Richmond  County.  Among  Marma- 
duke Morton's  connections  and  those  that  he  made  by 
marriage  were  the  Astons,  the  Beckwiths,  the  Cockes, 
the  Caldwells,  the  Cooks,  the  Davises,  the  Dinwiddies, 
the  Du  Boises,  the  Eltons,  the  Hawkinses,  the  Hites, 
the  Lanes,  the  Meanses,  the  Mount  joys,  the  Perrins, 
the  Pryors,  the  Thorntons,  the  Van  Meters,  and  the 
Woodses.  The  number  of  his  descent  cousins,  near  and 
remote,  must  have  run  into  the  thousands,  for  it  was  a 
prolific  folk  that  took  possession  of  the  first  English 
settlement  in  America.  While  Marmaduke  Morton 
was  anything  but  boastful,  he  was  fully  aware  of  the 
range  and  quality  of  his  kinships  and  probably  derived 
a  good  deal  of  quiet  satisfaction  from  it.  As  a  usual 
thing,  the  only  people  who  profess  utter  indifference  to 
matters  of  heredity  are  those  who  are  able  to  get  no 
great  comfort  from  the  backward  look. 

In  1815,  just  after  the  close  of  our  second  war  with 
Great  Britain,  Marmaduke  Morton,  being  then  nine- 
teen years  of  age,  emigrated  with  his  father's  family 
to  Logan  County,  Kentucky,  and  in  that  home  of  his 

4 


DAVID    MORTON 


adoption  he  lived  for  the  next  seventy-two  years. 
From  the  first  he  fitted  himself  into  its  peculiar  con- 
ditions and  had  never  any  desire  to  leave  it.  When 
he  died,  in  1887,  Dr.  Gross  Alexander,  speaking  at 
his  funeral,  exclaimed:  **Ninety-one  years  old  and 
dead  without  a  stain  on  him !"  And  there  was  nobody 
who  thought  that  the  statement  was  an  exaggeration. 
From  his  first  manhood  he  was  an  active  citizen,  taking 
a  lively  interest  in  everything  that  pertained  to  the 
public  welfare  and  gradually  building  up  for  himself  an 
unassailable  reputation  for  capacity,  probity,  and  kind- 
liness. By  instinct  and  preference  he  was  a  farmer. 
In  the  run  of  time  he  became  also  a  justice  of  the  peace, 
clerk  of  the  county  and  circuit  courts,  and  cashier  of 
the  Southern  Bank  of  Kentucky,  all  of  which  places  he 
filled  with  strict  integrity  and  with  perfect  satisfaction 
to  his  fellow  citizens.  Because  of  his  large  common 
sense  and  his  known  straightforwardness,  he  was  in- 
creasingly consulted  by  his  friends  and  neighbors  in 
regard  to  their  business  concerns  and  was  intrusted 
with  the  settlement  of  many  estates.  His  own  affairs 
he  managed  with  judicious  wisdom  and  succeeded  in 
amassing  for  himself  what  was  then  regarded  as  a 
comfortable  fortune.  But  he  never  made  a  dollar  by 
the  use  of  questionable  methods.  All  the  property  that 
he  gained  was  the  reward  of  patient  industry  and  hon- 

5 


DAVID   MORTON 


est  accumulation.  He  would  have  scorned  to  handle 
an  unclean  penny. 

His  comfortable  home,  The  Knob,  was  the  center 
of  a  generous  and  unstinted  hospitality.  Thither  the 
poorest  of  his  neighbors,  sure  of  a  cordial  welcome, 
came  at  their  own  pleasure;  and  many  famous  men  of 
Church  and  State,  who  felt  themselves  honored  by  the 
privilege,  were  accustomed  to  turn  in  for  days  or  weeks. 
Senator  John  J.  Crittenden,  next  to  Henry  Clay,  Ken- 
tucky's ablest  statesman  of  the  day,  was  a  not  infre- 
quent visitor ;  and  Bishop  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh,  the 
match  of  Henry  B.  Bascom  as  an  orator,  felt  entirely 
at  home.  From  such  companionships  Mr.  Morton  drew 
much  delight,  and  his  children  learned  many  lessons  of 
value  that  are  not  written  in  any  book. 

For  more  than,  half  a  century  he  was  one  of  the  pil- 
lars of  Methodism  in  Southern  Kentucky,  not  only  sus- 
taining it  with  his  money,  but,  what  is  better  still,  also 
reenforcing  it  with  the  powerful  example  of  his  stain- 
less conduct.  In  the  poiblic  congregation  he  was  a  con- 
spicuous figure,  never  absent  save  when  providentially 
kept  away,  and  always  helping  the  preacher  by  the  de- 
voutness  of  his  manner.  Endowed  with  a  good  voice 
and  a  fine  musical  taste,  he  often  led  the  singing.  The 
Methodist  hymn  book  he  knew  from  beginning  to  end. 
It  was  said  of  him  that  he  was  sure  to  select  always  an 
appropriate  hymn.     His  own  home  he  consecrated  by 

6 


Marmaduke  Beckwith  Morton  as  a  Young  Man 
Taken  from  a  pen  and  ink  sketch,  made  about  the  year  1820. 


DAVID   MORTON 


prayer.  He  was  never  too  busy  to  attend  to  domestic 
de\^otions.  Morning  and  evening  he  gathered  together 
both  his  children  and  his  servants,  read  with  devout 
deliberation  a  Scripture  lesson,  sang  one  of  the  serious 
and  stately  Methodist  hymns,  and  lifted  up  his  voice 
in  petition  and  supplication  before  God.  Alas  that  the 
custom  of  those  earlier  days  is  now  so  rarely  observed 
even  among  Christian  people ! 

He  was  twice  married  and  each  time  to  a  woman 
worthy  of  such  a  man.  His  first  wife  was  Nancy  Cald- 
well, daughter  of  Andrew  and  Frances  Morton  Cald- 
well. She  also  had  a  Morton  strain  in  her  blood, 
though  the  exact  measure  of  her  relation  to  her  hus- 
band was  not  known  until  both  had  been  dead  many 
years.  At  the  time  of  their  marriage,  September  26, 
1827,  she  was  eighteen  and  he  thirty-one  years  of  age. 
Her  own  family  was  widely  spread  and  of  great  prom- 
inence throughout  the  South  and  West,  John  Caldwell 
Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  and  many  other  distin- 
guished names  being  connected  with  it.  After  having 
borne  three  sons,  Daniel,  William,  and  David,  the 
youngest  of  whom  was  David,  she  died  June  19,  1834, 
but  not  before  witnessing  the  baptism  of  her  babe  by 
the  hands  of  Rev.  John  Littlejohn,  an  English  local 
preacher  who  had  known  John  Wesley.  As  a  matter 
of  course,  the  little  boy  had  no  recollection  of  her;  but 
even  after  he  became  an  old  man  he  used  to  talk  of  her 

7 


DAVID    MORTON 


with  a  strange  tenderness.  It  was  one  of  his  cherished 
hopes  that  he  might  see  her  and  know  her  in  Heaven. 
One  who  knew  him  well  says :  "It  was  pathetic  to  hear 
David  Morton  speak  of  his  mother.  His  voice  would 
soften  as  he  mentioned  her  name,  and  he  prized  to  the 
day  of  his  death  a  bit  of  fancy  work  that  she  had  done 
in  her  girlhood." 

The  second  wife  of  Marmaduke  Morton  was  Eliza- 
beth Morton  Caldwell,  a  sister  of  the  first.  If,  as 
seems  proper,  God  has  a  special  reward  for  good  step- 
mothers, she  certainly  deserved  to  get  it.  The  testi- 
mony is  complete  that  she  filled  the  measure  of  her 
delicate  and  difficult  situation  to  perfection.  To  her 
sister's  orphaned  sons  she  became  a  mother  indeed, 
dealing  with  them  not  only  in  justice,  but  also  in  love. 
Between  them  and  her  own  daughter,  afterwards  Mrs. 
Nannie  Bowden,  the  only  one  of  her  four  children  that 
lived,  she  made  no  difference.  They  all  looked  up  to 
her  with  profound  regard  and  never  failed  to  bear 
witness  to  her  many  virtues.  One  who  was  entirely 
competent  to  speak  said  of  her:  "Marked  executive 
ability  was  one  of  her  characteristics,  and  she  managed 
her  large  establishment  with  order  and  precision." 
Like  her  husband,  she  was  a  God-fearing  Methodist  of 
the  old  school.  I  once  heard  Dr.  Morton  say  in  a 
public  speech:  "I  have  had  three  mothers:  my  own, 
whom  I  never  saw,  or  at  least  cannot  remember  to 

8 


DAVID    MORTON 


have  seen;  my  stepmother,  who  was  a  benediction  to 
me  as  long  as  she  Hved,  and  of  whom  my  recollection 
has  been  ever  most  holy  since  she  went  away;  and  my 
black  mammy,  Aunt  Eve,  who  nursed  me  as  a  baby 
and  both  caressed  and  scolded  me  as  a  little  child." 
In  honor  of  this  faithful  colored  servant  and  as  a  trib- 
ute of  his  unchanging  gratitude  to  her  he  arranged  be- 
fore his  death  to  put  a  memorial  window  in  Haygood 
Hall,  Paine  Institute,  Augusta,  Georgia,  and  his  plans 
were  carried  out  in  detail  by  his  sun-iving  sons. 

This  leads  me  to  say  that  the  slaves  of  Marmaduke 
Morton,  of  whom  there  were  not  a  few,  were  treated 
with  the  extremest  kindness  and  that  they  greatly  re- 
vered their  master.  After  the  Civil  War  had  relieved 
him  of  all  legal  responsibility  for  their  welfare,  he  still 
helped  to  maintain  them  till  his  death.  The  "peculiar 
institution"  is  gone,  whereat  all  good  men  rejoice. 
There  was  much  about  it  that  was  evil,  but  much  also 
that  was  good.  Thousands  of  Christian  masters  ac- 
cepted their  slaves  as  they  did  their  own  children,  as 
a  providential  responsibility,  and  diligently  sought  to 
discharge  it  before  God.  Among  the  number  of  these 
was  surely  Marmaduke  Morton. 

The  atmosphere  of  such  a  home  as  I  have  described 
was  altogether  wholesome,  and  the  four  children  who 
grew  up  in  it  absorbed  it  into  their  blood.  Healthily 
fed  and  clad,  living  much  in  the  open  air,  early  taught 

9 


DAVID    MORTON 


the  dignity  of  honest  work,  and  soundly  instructed  in 
their  duties  toward  God  and  men,  they  made  one  of 
those  sturdy  households  out  of  which  a  true  and  lasting 
civilization  is  builded.  That  such  households  may 
never  fail  in  our  dear  native  land  is  a  prayer  which  all 
good  Christians  should  devoutly  offer. 

A  deep  and  strong  family  affection  was  one  of  the 
marked  characteristics  of  these  Mortons.  For  their 
parents  they  entertained  a  veneration  that  literally 
knew  no  limits.  "Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother" 
was  a  commandment  which  they  scrupulously  obeyed. 
When  David  Morton  was  himself  an  old  man,  he  was 
accustomed  to  say  with  the  deepest  feeling  that  he 
would  rather  be  like  his  own  father  than  any  other 
man  he  had  ever  known. 

After  the  death  of  his  father  he  caused  to  be  removed 
to  Louisville  the  furniture  from  his  bedchamber,  which 
he  placed  in  a  memorial  room  in  his  home.  The  old 
corded  bed  upon  which  he  was  born,  with  its  acorn- 
crowned  post;  the  lounge  upon  which  he  slept  as  a 
boy  and  upon  which  for  more  than  sixty  years  his  fa- 
ther took  his  naps;  the  old-fashioned  dresser  upon 
which  sat  the  little  oval  glass  with  its  single  drawer; 
the  washstand  with  the  hole  in  the  top  for  the  pan  and 
shelf  below  for  the  brass-bound  cedar  bucket ;  the  old 
eight-day  clock,  pictures  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence  and    Faneuil    Hall,    and    the    split-bottom, 

10 


DAVID    MORTON 


hand-made  chairs  were  all  very  dear  to  him.  To  this 
room  he  would  go  when  heavily  burdened  with  care 
or  fatigued  in  body  to  indulge  in  a  fragrant  retrospec- 
tion, to  live  the  old  days  over,  and  to  forget  for  a 
while  the  crushing  weight  of  a  great  undertaking.  He 
was  brimful  and  running  over  with  sentiment  and  af- 
fection, and  it  carried  him  safely  over  many  a  rough 
place. 

Nor  did  the  members  of  the  family  lack  in  strong 
regard  for  one  another.  While  they  were  children 
they  hung  closely  together,  and  after  they  came  to 
maturity  they  did  not  allow  the  cares  of  the  world  to 
separate  them  from  one  another.  To  their  half-sister 
the  three  sons  were  always  "big  brothers,"  and  among 
themselves  they  were  full  partners  and  hearty  com- 
rades. Upon  the  death  of  his  brother  William,  Daniel 
being  already  dead,  David  wrote : 

I  was  the  youngest  of  three  brothers,  and  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  solicitude  of  these  older  brothers  for  my  wel- 
fare all  through  their  lives  is  deeply  affecting  to  me  now 
that  they  are  both  gone.  In  our  childhood  rambles 
through  the  woods  and  over  the  fields,  when  the  path 
became  rough  or  thorny,  I  was  lifted  along  by  them  till  the 
briers  were  passed ;  and  if  worn  down  by  the  length  of  the 
trip  till  I  could  go  no  farther,  I  was  carried  on  a  pack- 
saddle  formed  by  their  hands  or  on  their  shoulders  till 
the  end  of  the  journey  was  reached.  Many  a  time  when 
their  tasks  were  done  and  mine  were  yet  unfinished  my 
work  was  soon  completed  by  all  uniting  for  its  accom- 

II 


DAVID    MORTON 


plishment.  Further  along,  when  confronted  by  the  duties 
and  obligations  of  actual  life,  I  found  them  ever  ready  to 
render  needed  aid.  When  I  was  about  ready  to  enter  for 
life  the  itinerant  ministry — an  act  involving  virtual  con- 
sent to  a  life  of  perpetual  poverty — a  solemn  covenant 
was  entered  into  by  them  that  I  should  never  want,  if  in 
their  power  to  afford  it,  for  means  to  prosecute  my  mis- 
sion, and  I  was  told  to  draw  on  them  at  sight  without 
grace  for  any  amount  my  vicissitudes  might  require. 
Time  and  again,  when  pecuniary  troubles  have  threatened 
to  stop  my  labors,  has  the  needed  remittance  from  them 
kept  me  in  the  field,  or  has  paper  bearing  my  own  name, 
which  had  no  commercial  value,  but  underwritten  or  in- 
dorsed by  theirs,  which  made  it  worth  all  it  represented, 
passed  over  the  counters  of  banks  and  supplied  the  means 
without  which  I  must  have  succumbed  to  the  pressure. 

Outside  of  his  immediate  family  young  David  Mor- 
ton had  a  good  many  other  companionships  that  add- 
ed something  to  his  daily  pleasures.  To  his  father's 
slaves,  old  and  young,  he  was  much  devoted,  as  they 
were  to  him.  After  he  became  old  enough  to  do  a 
day's  labor,  he  often  worked  side  by  side  with  them 
in  the  fields.  He  thus  acquired  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  African  character  and  imbibed,  no  doubt,  some 
part  of  that  inimitable  humor  which  made  him  so 
charming  in  social  circles.  In  his  friendships  there 
was  great  staying  power.  Whoever  once  got  into  his 
heart  was  likely  to  find  a  permanent  lodgment  there. 
Certainly  the  colored  boys  who  labored  and  laughed 
and  hunted'  and  fished  with  him  over  his  father's  farm 

12 


Marmaduke  Beckwith  Morton 
1796-1887 


Marmaduke  Beckwith  Morton,  the  father  of  David  Morton,  had  a 
most  honorable  ancestry  running  back  on  both  sides  of  the  house 
to  the  early  days  of  the  Colony  of  Virginia.  In  1815,  just  after  the 
close  of  our  second  war  with  Great  Britain,  he  emigrated  with  his 
father's  family  to  Logan  County,  Kentucky,  and  in  the  home  of 
his  adoption  he  lived  for  the  next  seventy-two  years.  By  instinct 
and  preference  he  was  a  farmer.  In  the  run  of  time  he  became 
also  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  Clerk  of  the  County  and  Circuit  Courts 
and  Cashier  of  the  Southern  Bank  of  Kentucky,  all  of  which  places 
he  filled  with  strict  integrity  and  with  perfect  satisfaction  to  his 
fellow  citizens.  For  more  than  half  a  century  he  was  one  of  the 
pillars  of  Methodism  in  Southern  Kentucky.  When  he  died  Doctor 
Gross  Alexander,  speaking  at  his  funeral,  exclaimed,  "Ninety-one 
years  old  and  dead  without  a  stain  on  him." 


DAVID    MORTON 


never  got  away  from  the  grasp  of  his  good  will.  He 
held  on  to  them  very  steadily  through  all  changes  of 
time  and  circumstance. 

Once,  when  I  was  editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate^ 
he  passed  through  Nashville  on  his  way  to  some  of  the 
Conferences  and  stopped  in  at  my  office.  After  we 
had  talked  awhile  of  other  things,  he  put  his  hand  into 
his  pocket  and  said :  "I've  got  something  to  show  you. 
Yesterday  I  was  back  at  Russellville,  and  while  there 
I  hunted  up  two  of  my  old  chums  and  had  a  group 
picture  taken.  Here  it  is."  When  he  handed  it  to  me, 
I  discovered  that  he  was  standing  in  it  between  two 
gray-headed  negro  men  and  looking  as  happy  as  a  big 
boy  at  a  frolic.  Indeed,  he  was  something  of  a  boy 
always.  If  that  picture  is  anywhere  in  existence — "a 
ham  sandwich,"  he  called  it — I  hope  that  it  will  be 
inserted  somewhere  in  these  pages,  as  it  reveals  a  cer- 
tain side  of  his  character  better  than  a  dissertation. 

He  was  sent  to  school  quite  early  and  there  came 
into  contact  with  many  youngsters  of  his  own  age  from 
whom  he  doubtless  received  much  good  and  some  evil, 
though  it  is  wonderful  how  surely  a  boy  brought  up  in 
a  Christian  home  will  shed  off  the  evil  influences  that 
he  meets  when  he  first  goes  out  into  the  open  world.  I 
have  always  been  sorry  for  the  men  who  were  educated 
wholly  or  largely  by  private  tutors.  They  miss  some 
of  the  healthiest  and  most  normal  stimulants  of  which 

13 


DAVID    MORTON 


the  human  mind  is  capable,  stimulants  that  come  from 
close  association  and  sometimes  from  rather  rude  con- 
flicts with  others  of  their  own  age  and  station.  It  is 
a  wonderful  instinct  by  which  boys  sort  themselves 
into  groups.  They  do  not  understand  it  themselves. 
Neither  does  anybody  else. 

It  does  not  surprise  us  who  knew  David  Morton  as 
a  man  to  learn  that  he  early  followed  this  "ganging" 
impulse  and  identified  himself  pretty  thoroughly  with 
some  of  his  fellows.  One  of  his  own  sons  writes  me 
that,  "while  he  had  many  friends,  he  belonged  to  a 
special  quartet,  the  other  three  members  of  which  were 
Exstein  Norton,  Philander  Barclay,  and  William  War- 
der, the  tales  of  whose  mischievous  pranks  have  been 
handed  down  to  their  children."  If  he  had  not  taken  to 
"mischievous  pranks"  as  a  boy,  it  would  have  been  a 
marvel.  He  was  still  capable  of  them  after  his  head 
had  been  frosted  with  the  passing  of  many  winters. 
The  fun-loving  disposition  was  in  his  blood  and  fiber. 
But  there  was  never  any  meanness  nor  malice  connected 
with  it.    From  all  that  he  was  utterly  free. 

It  was  very  fit  that,  when  Mr.  Norton  had  died  and 
his  remains  were  brought  back  to  Russellville  for  bur- 
ial, Dr.  Morton  should  be  the  chief  speaker.  Among 
other  things,  he  said  on  that  occasion : 

I  trust  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  making  some  refer- 
ence to  my  personal  relations  to  the  deceased.    From  our 

14 


DAVID    MORTON 


early  boyhcMDd  till  we  were  about  eighteen  years  of  age 
Mr.  Norton  and  I  were  closely  associated.  We  played 
and  traded  and  studied  together  and  confided  to  each  oth- 
er our  secrets  and  talked  over  our  plans  for  our  life  work. 
He  was  the  first  human  being  to  whom  I  admitted  that  I 
believed  myself  called  of  God  to  the  work  of  the  ministry. 
He  encouraged  me  to  go  forward,  as  did  Philander  Bar- 
clay and  William  Warder,  the  other  members  of  our 
quartet.  To  this  trio  I  was  more  indebted  at  this  point 
than  they  themselves  were  aware. 

In  the  same  village  cemetery  where  Mr.  Norton  was 
laid  away  Dr.  Morton  himself  a  few  years  later  found 
a  quiet  resting  place ;  and  so  the  old  friends  sleep  side 
by  side  till  Jesus  comes.  It  is  beautiful  when  a  boy- 
hood friendship  survives  the  passage  of  years  and 
maintains  itself  down  to  old  age. 

As  far  as  I  know,  it  is  nowhere  set  out  in  any  record 
that  young  Morton's  temper  now  and  then  got  the  bet- 
ter of  him  and  brought  him  into  collision  with  any  of 
his  schoolmates.  But  I  gravely  suspect  that,  though 
he  was  ordinarily  sweet  and  sunny,  he  did,  under  se- 
vere provocation,  occasionally  show  a  spirit  of  vigorous 
resentment.  He  had  temper,  plenty  of  it ;  and  he  never 
entirely  lost  it.  I  have  known  him  once  or  twice  to 
flame  with  just  indignation.  At  such  times,  as  they 
say  in  East  Tennessee,  he  was  "not  strictly  a  safe  citi- 
zen to  'projick'  with."  But  how  soon  the  storm  in  his 
soul  was  overpast!  He  did  not  brood  over  an  injury 
nor  cherish  a  feeling  of  revenge. 

15 


DAVID    MORTON 


Dr.  Morton  received  practically  the  whole  of  his 
education  at  Russellville  Academy,  an  excellent  clas- 
sical school,  of  which  Bethel  College  is  the  present-day 
successor.  That  he  got  a  good  substantial  grounding, 
quite  enough  to  put  him  in  the  way  of  further  prose- 
cuting his  studies  on  his  own  account,  is  altogether 
certain.  He  was  especially  well  drilled  in  mathematics 
and  received  a  fine  start  in  Latin.  He  also  learned  the 
rudiments  of  Greek.  Not  much  science  was  taught  in 
those  days,  but  what  little  there  was  he  rather  greedily 
devoured  and  contracted  a  love  for  scientific  matters 
that  stayed  with  him  ever  afterwards.  In  later  life  he 
became  a  man  of  amazingly  wide  intelligence  and 
knew  more  or  less — usually  more  rather  than  less — of 
all  the  great  things  that  were  going  on  in  the  world. 
In  my  judgment,  however,  he  always  studied  men  and 
things  more  than  books  and  was  more  interested  in  the 
actual  movements  of  human  life  than  in  the  mere  tech- 
nical details  of  scholarship.  In  power  of  observa- 
tion he  was  unexcelled.  Nothing  seemed  to  escape 
him.  What  he  once  got  he  kept.  His  memory  was 
capacious  and  accurate.  For  his  old  teachers,  John  P. 
French,  **a  Virginia  cavalier,"  and  William  Wines,  "a 
Vermont  Yankee,"  he  cherished  a  profound  and  per- 
manent respect  and  affection.  They  were  good  schol- 
ars and  good  men  and  sought  not  only  to  train  the 
minds  of  their  students,  but  also  to  develop  their  char- 

i6 


DAVID    MORTON 


acters.  Those  old-fashioned  teachers,  who  did  not 
shirk  the  drudgery  of  actual  instruction  and  who  knew 
that  their  chief  business,  after  all,  was  the  making  of 
men,  were  worthy  of  all  honor.  When  Mr.  Wines  was 
an  old  man,  he  made  a  protracted  visit  in  David  Mor- 
ton*s  home,  and  it  is  within  the  recollection  of  the 
children  of  the  family  that  the  intercourse  between  the 
two  men  was  exceedingly  courteous  and  beautiful. 

In  the  intervals  between  school  terms  David  Morton 
occupied  himself  with  any  useful  employment  that 
came  in  sight,  being  prompted  thereto,  no  doubt,  by 
his  wise  father,  who  knew  that  idleness  brings  only 
evil  in  its  train,  especially  to  a  growing  boy.  For  ^ 
while  he  had  a  place  in  a  retail  store.  He  was  also  at 
one  time  an  assistant  in  the  office  of  the  county  clerk. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen,  strangely  enough,  he  was 
made  a  deputy  sheriff.  These  positions  brought  him, 
first  and  last,  into  contact  with  nearly  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  the  county  and  laid  the  foundation  for  his 
marvelous  acquaintance  with  the  families  of  that  part 
of  the  State.  They  also  taught  him  how  to  mix  with 
all  sorts  of  people  in  an  easy  and  natural  way,  an  art 
in  which  he  became  later  a  past  master.  Especially  in 
the  office  of  his  father,  who  was  a  kind  of  hereditary 
clerk  of  the  courts,  did  he  get  a  splendid  training.  As 
soon  as  he  was  able  to  write  well  enough  he  was  put 
to  the  copying  desk  and  so  acquired  a  practical  famil- 
2  17 


DAVID    MORTON 


iarity  with  business  forms  that  served  him  most  effec- 
tively in  the  many  enterprises  of  one  sort  or  another 
that  he  was  afterwards  instrumental  in  organizing.  He 
joined  very  early  the  juvenile  branch  of  the  Sons  of 
Temperance  and,  in  company  with  some  of  his  school- 
mates, founded  a  similar  order  among  the  colored 
people  of  the  town,  possibly  the  first  and  only  temper- 
ance society  that  ever  existed  among  the  slaves  of  this 
country.  This  juvenile  branch  was  known  as  Russell- 
ville  Fountain,  No.  15,  Younger  Brothers  of  Temper- 
ance, and  with  it  David  Morton  was  actively  connected 
from  1847  to  1853,  ^^om  the  time  he  was  fourteen 
until  he  was  twenty  years  of  age.  Thus  early  did  he 
associate  himself  with  a  moral  movement.  At  his 
death  the  record  books  and  the  printed  ritual  of  the 
lodge  were  found  neatly  tied  together  and  carefully 
put  away  with  his  valuable  papers.  These  books  show 
that  thus  early  in  life  he  was  accurate  and  neat  in  mak- 
ing records.  The  roll  contains  the  names  of  seventy- 
one  boys  from  the  leading  families  of  the  town  and 
county.  Many  of  them  remained  his  lifelong  friends, 
and  some  of  them  became  distinguished  men  in  after 
life.  The  work  as  set  out  in  the  printed  ritual,  with 
its  passwords  and  secret  signs,  appealed  to  the  imagi- 
nation of  these  boys.  It  is  interesting  reading  to  old 
folks  to-day. 

In  all  these  ways,  though  quite  unknown  to  himself, 
18 


Mrs.   Marmaduke   Beckwith   Morton 

Born  Elizabeth   Smith  Morton  Caldwell 

1811-1880 


The  second  wife  of  Marmaduke  B.  Morton  was  a  sister  of  the  first 
and  the  step- mother  of  David  Morton.  If,  as  seems  proper,  God  has 
a  special  reward  for  good  step- mothers  she  certainly  deserved  to  get 
it.  The  testimony  is  complete  that  she  filled  the  measure  of  her 
delicate  and  difficult  situation  to  perfection.  To  her  sister's  or- 
phaned sons  she  became  a  mother  indeed,  dealing  with  them  not 
only  in  justice  but  also  in  love.  Between  them  and  her  own  daugh- 
ter, afterwards  Mrs.  Nannie  Bowden,  the  only  one  of  her  four 
children  that  lived,  she  made  no  difference.  They  all  looked  up  to 
her  with  profound  regard  and  never  failed  to  bear  witness  to  her 
many  virtues.  I  once  heard  Doctor  Morton  say  in  a  public  speech, 
"I  have  had  three  mothers:  my  own  whom  I  never  saw,  or  at  least 
cannot  remember  to  have  seen,  my  step-mother,  who  was  a  bene- 
diction to  me  as  long  as  she  lived,  and  of  whom  my  recollection  has 
been  ever  most  holy  since  she  went  away,  and  my  black  mammy. 
Aunt  Kve,  who  nursed  me  as  a  baby  and  both  caressed  and  scolded 
me  as  a  child." 


DAVID    MORTON 


he  was  acquiring  and  storing  up  that  extraordinary 
capacity  for  pubHc  service  which  so  distinguished  him 
in  the  maturity  and  prime  of  his  manhood.  That  God 
was  leading  him,  we  cannot  doubt — unless,  indeed,  we 
are  prepared  to  go  the  full  length  of  skepticism  and 
doubt  whether  God  has  anything  at  all  to  do  with  the 
affairs  of  men.  In  those  days  every  man  of  intelli- 
gence in  Kentucky  was  more  or  less  of  a  politician  and 
a  partisan;  and  David  Morton,  boy  and  man,  was  no 
exception  to  the  general  rule.  His  father  and  the 
great  majority  of  his  intimate  friends  were  old-line 
Whigs.  Very  naturally  he  imbibed  their  views  and 
never  quite  got  rid  of  them.  In  later  life,  owing  to 
changed  conditions,  he  affiliated  more  or  less  closely 
with  the  Democratic  party ;  but  at  the  bottom  of  his 
heart  he  was  always  a  follower  and  almost  a  worshiper 
of  the  principles  and  policies  of  Henry  Clay.  From 
the  earliest  days  the  public  discussion  of  political  issues 
was  a  very  common  thing  in  Kentucky.  It  bred  gen- 
erations of  able  public  speakers  and  contributed  not  a 
little  to  the  public  enlightenment.  Without  positively 
knowing  it  to  be  true,  I  am  yet  pretty  sure  that  David 
Morton  in  his  youth  never  missed  a  chance  to  hear  a 
popular  orator  and  that  he  always  cheered  when  a 
Whig  made  a  telling  point.  There  was  nothing  tepid 
in  his  convictions.  What  he  believed  at  all  he  believed 
thoroughly.     And  was  there  anything  wrong  in  this? 

19 


DAVID    MORTON 


The  man  who  has  no  fixed  convictions,  but  only  a 
loosely  held  set  of  mere  opinions,  does  not  count  for 
much  in  the  world.  He  is,  it  is  true,  not  likely  to  stir 
up  any  violent  antagonisms;  but  he  is  also  not  likely 
to  stir  up  anything  else. 

20 


CHAPTER  II. 
Feeling  after  God  and  Finding  Him. 

COMPASSED  about,  as  he  was,  from  childhood 
with  religious  influences  of  the  best  sort,  it  was 
inevitable  that  David  Morton's  thoughts  should  early 
turn  to  God.  In  addition  to  the  careful  training  that  he 
received  from  his  own  parents,  which  has  already  been 
noticed,  he  was  greatly  benefited  by  the  instruction  and 
example  of  his  Caldwell  grandparents,  with  whom  he 
spent  much  of  his  time.  Andrew  and  Frances  Caldwell 
were  Methodists  of  the  best  ancient  pattern,  knowing 
God  by  a  gracious  personal  experience,  rigidly  upright 
in  their  daily  lives,  and  constant  in  their  attendance 
upon  the  services  of  the  Church.  Religion  was  not  an 
incidental  thing  with  them,  but  a  matter  of  supreme 
consideration.  It  is  best  at  this  point  to  let  Dr.  Morton 
speak  for  himself.    He  says: 

My  father  made  a  careful  record  of  my  baptism,  and 
to  it  in  my  childhood  my  attention  was  constantly  called. 
I  was  often  told  of  it  by  my  old  "black  mammy,"  to  whom 
I  am  indebted  for  the  first  nourishment  that  I  ever  re- 
ceived and  for  many  other  things  which  no  words  can 
tell.  She  was  a  strong  Baptist,  but  a  firm  believer  in  in- 
fant baptism.  If  she  was  inconsistent  in  this — why,  she 
was  inconsistent.  My  stepmother  often  recited  to  me 
full  details  of  the  occurrence.    These  things  affected  me 

21 


DAVID    MORTON 


deeply  and  made  me  feel  that  somehow  I  belonged  to 
God  and  must  at  some  time  enter  formally  into  his  serv- 
ice. These  were,  perhaps,  my  earliest  religious  impres- 
sions. 

Then  I' enjoyed  under  my  father's  roof,  from  my  birth 
to  my  majority,  the  services  of  the  family  altar.  They 
were  conducted  alternately  by  my  father  and  my  grand- 
father. There  was  just  enough  difference  in  their  style 
of  conducting  the  exercises  to  relieve  them  of  all  monot- 
ony and  make  them  edifying.  My  father  read  well,  sang 
finely,  and  prayed  in  plain,  vigorous  English.  His  whole 
manner  indicated  that  he  really  believed  what  he  read, 
felt  what  he  sang,  and  desired  what  he  asked;  and  the 
general  impression  of  it  all  was  most  wholesome.  My 
grandfather  selected  his  Scripture  lessons  with  care  and 
read  them  with  precision;  and  though  he  could  not  sing, 
he  seldom  failed  to  read  a  hymn  which  had  evidently 
been  studied  closely  and  to  offer  a  prayer  that  was  a  min- 
iature body  of  divinity.  I  heard  him  once  when  I  was  a 
small  child  use  the  phrase,  "the  Lamb  of  God  which  tak- 
eth  away  the  sin  of  the  world,"  and  after  the  prayer  was 
ended  I  went  to  him  and  asked  what  it  meant.  During 
his  explanation  I  first  found  out  that  I  needed  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God.  Soon  afterwards  he  read  at  prayers  the 
stanza : 

I  ask  the  gift  of  righteousness, 

The  sin-subduing  power; 
Power  to  believe  and  go  in  peace 

And  never  grieve  thee  more. 

And  this  taught  me  that  it  was  by  prayer  that  I  was  to 
obtain  the  reconciliation.  Then  one  morning  a  little  later 
he  read,  as  tears  ran  down  his  furrowed  cheeks  and  his 
face  glowed  with  the  joy  that  filled  his  heart : 

22 


DAVID   MORTON 


I  know  that  my  Redeemer  lives, 

And  ever  prays  for  me; 
A  token  of  his  love  he  gives, 

A  pledge  of  liberty. 

I  was  thus  brought  to  understand  that  I  might  know  my- 
self reconciled  to  God  and  resolved  that  I  would  never 
stop  short  of  that  knowledge. 

The  public  worship  in  the  village  church  mightily  re- 
enforced  the  lessons  of  truth  that  David  Morton  got  in 
his  own  home.  A  solid,  old-fashioned  brick  building, 
with  a  rectangular  auditorium,  and  galleries  around 
three  sides  for  the  colored  people,  furnished  ample 
room  for  the  congregation,  which  was  made  up  of 
pretty  lively  Methodists.  There  was  scant  formality, 
and  everybody  felt  easy  and  at  home.  There  was  no 
organ.  The  hymns  were  given  out  two  lines  at  a  time, 
and  some  brother  who  could  "set  and  carry"  the  tune — 
it  was  often  Marmaduke  Morton — led  the  singing.  If 
the  preacher  happened  to  strike  fire,  there  were  hearty 
amens  from  the  pews ;  and  sometimes,  when  he  seemed 
to  lag,  sympathetic  brethren  tried  to  help  him  out  by  en- 
couraging responses.  It  was  not  considered  amiss  for 
any  happy  soul  to  praise  God  with  a  loud  voice,  and 
shouting  was  far  from  being  uncommon.  The  class 
meeting  was  still  in  vogue  and  proved  to  be  a  most  ef- 
fective means  of  edification.  The  "mourners'  bench" 
was  a  part  of  the  church  furniture  and  was  often  filled 
with  men,  women,  and  children  inquiring  after  God. 

23 


DAVID    MORTON 


It  is  barely  possible  that  some  of  the  saints  had  come  to 
regard  it  with  a  rather  superstitious  veneration  and  to 
doubt  whether  there  was  apy  other  place  where  a  sinner 
was  so  likely  to  find  forgiveness  and  peace.  The  one 
great  use  that  it  served  was  to  encourage  open  confes- 
sion. It  has  been  to  the  Methodists  all  that  the  ^'inquiry 
room"  has  been  to  the  Presbyterians  and  somewhat 
more. 

As  Russellville  was  almost  from  the  beginning  a 
stronghold  of  intelligent  and  well-to-do  Methodists, 
the  preachers  sent  to  them  were  usually  of  the  ablest 
class,  and  from  time  to  time  many  men  of  distinction 
came  from  a  distance  to  occupy  the  pulpit.  Such  were 
Thomas  A.  Morris  and  Hubbard  H.  Kavanaugh,  both 
subsequently  bishops;  Charles  Holliday,  who  became 
one  of  the  general  Book  Agents  at  Cincinnati;  Peter 
Akers  and  Peter  Cartwright,  men  of  renown  in  the 
whole  country;  Hooper  Crews,  famous  as  a  presiding 
elder  in  Illinois;  William  P.  McKnight  and  others. 
To  listen  to  these  able  and  earnest  servants  of  Christ 
was  to  be  lifted  out  of  low  and  mean  views  of  religion 
and  to  get  a  clearer  vision  of  what  is  meant  by  the 
Kingdom  of  God  in  the  Earth.  Incidentally,  also  it 
was  to  get  a  practical  training  in  the  great  art  of  public 
speaking.  If  David  Morton  was  a  Methodist  born,  as 
he  thought,  he  was  also  a  Methodist  made.  All  the 
forces  that  played  on  him  in  the  formative  period  of  his 

24 


DAVID    MORTON 


existence  contributed  something  to  the  final  result.  It 
would  have  been  an  anomaly  if  in  the  long  run  he  had 
turned  out  to  be  anything  else. 

Pursuing  his  own  narrative,  which  covers  this  period 
of  his  development  with  great  fullness,  he  says : 

At  thirteen  I  joined  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  on  probation  as  a  seeker  of  religion  and  was  as- 
signed to  one  of  the  classes  of  the  pastoral  charge.  At 
the  end  of  six  months,  upon  the  recommendation  of  my 
class  leader,  though  still  only  a  "seeker,"  at  the  bidding  of 
a  convinced  conscience  I  was  received  into  full  member- 
ship, being  meanwhile  closely  attentive  to  my  Church 
duties  and  religious  devotions  and  leading,  in  the  main, 
an  upright  and  moral  life. 

Notice  how  measured  this  judgment  is.  He  made  it 
up  many  years  afterwards  on  mature  reflection  and  no 
doubt  sought  to  express  in  it  the  exact  and  sober  truth. 
In  the  sentences  that  follow  next  there  is  a  gentle  play 
of  the  humor  that  was  so  irrepressible  in  him  and  that 
now  and  then  broke  out  even  in  the  most  unexpected 
connections.  ^'During  this  time,"  he  continues,  "I  sel- 
dom lost  an  opportunity  to  go  to  the  mourners'  bench 
and  was  known  as  *the  chronic  mourner'  of  the  neigh- 
borhood." Why  he  was  held  so  long  in  what  John 
Wesley  would  have  called  "a  legal  bondage,"  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  tell.  The  trouble  was  not  an  intellectual  one. 
He  had  no  doubts  concerning  his  need  of  salvation  nor 
of  Christ's  power  to  save  him.    Moreover,  he  was  ap- 

25 


DAVID    MORTON 


parently  willing  to  be  saved.  But  deep  down  in  the 
abysses  of  his  being  there  was  some  hindering  cause. 
It  is  more  than  possible  that  his  eyes  had  not  yet  been 
opened  to  see  the  utter  hideousness  and  loathsomeness 
of  sin  and  to  cry  out  with  St.  Paul  in  a  perfect  agony 
of  spirit :  "Who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this 
death?"  His  experience  in  this  respect  was  not  quite 
unique.  Many  other  souls  have  traversed  the  same 
long  and  weary  road  over  which  he  went  toward  the 
Kingdom.  The  great  Augustine  found  peace  and 
strength  only  after  protracted  waiting  and  wrestling 
for  it,  and  John  Wesley  continued  many  years  in  ''the 
wilderness  state"  and  was  a  true  servant  of  God  long 
before  he  knew  the  rapture  of  being  a  son. 

But  deliverance  comes  at  last  to  all  who  honestly 
feel  their  need  of  it.  "Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive;  seek, 
and  ye  shall  find;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto 
you."  This  promise  has  never  once  failed ;  and  it  did 
not  fail  the  open-spirited  Kentucky  youth,  the  dream  of 
whose  early  years  was  that  he  might  sometime  catch  a 
vision  of  God's  uplifted  face  and  hear  the  sweet  and 
gentle  sound  of  his  forgiving  voice.  All  the  while  the 
day  of  his  redemption  was  drawing  closer,  and  at  last 
it  came.    Again  it  is  better  to  let  him  tell  his  own  story : 

Just  after  I  was  eighteen  years  old  I  attended  a  meeting 
held  by  the  Cumberland  Presbyterians ;  and  when  an  in- 
vitation was  given  I  went  forward,  as  usual,  for  the 

2^ 


,1       >  3  J 


Old  Court  House 
The  quaint  old  Court  House  at  Russellville,  Kentucky,  now 
gone.  The  office  of  Clerk  of  the  Courts  in  antebellum 
days  was  one  of  dignified  importance.  Marmaduke  Beck- 
with  Morton  was  clerk  for  many  years.  David  Morton,  as 
soon  as  he  was  able  to  write,  was  put  to  the  copying  desk 
in  the  clerk's  office  and  thus  acquired  a  business  training 
of  great  value  in  after  years. 


M- 


DAVID    MORTON 


prayers  of  the  Church  and  continued  to  go  for  several 
weeks.  One  evening  during  an  exhortation  by  Rev.  A. 
J.  Baird,  of  Nashville,  Tennessee,  I  was  pungently  con- 
victed of  sin  and  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  realized  the 
difference  between  a  convinced  judgment  and  a  convicted 
heart.  I  cried  mightily  to  God  for  help  and  only  when 
asleep  ceased  thus  to  cry,  giving  up  all  business  and  every- 
thing else  but  seeking  Christ.  At  the  end  of  about  a  week 
I  was  converted,  gloriously  converted,  and  my  soul  was 
filled  with  delight,  joy,  rapture,  and  the  peace  which  pass- 
eth  all  understanding.  Strange  to  say,  in  less  than  three 
hours  I  began  to  doubt  and  in  a  little  while  found  myself 
enveloped  in  a  darkness  which  shut  out  every  ray  of  light. 
For  six  long,  weary  months  I  groped  my  way  through 
the  folds  of  this  darkness,  till  one  Sabbath,  when  on  the 
verge  of  despair,  I  resolved  to  partake  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  because  I  believed  it  my  duty  to  do  so ;  and  while 
at  the  altar  and  in  the  very  act  of  receiving  the  elements 
I  was  again  filled  with  the  love  of  God  and  found  it  to  be 
unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 

He  was  not  the  first  penitent  to  find  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit  while  partaking  of  the  emblems  of  the  Lord's 
sacrifice  nor  the  last  one.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
Spirit  is  not  tied  to  the  sacraments,  it  is  also  true  that 
He  often  comes  through  them,  using  the  visible  badges 
as  the  channels  of  His  grace. 

I  cannot  help  wondering  whether  David  Morton  in 
his  days  of  depression  ever  fully  uncovered  his  heart 
to  any  experienced  Christian — say,  to  his  father  or 
grandfather.     Surely,  as  I  look  at  it,  that  would  have 

27 


DAVID   MORTON 


been  the  wise  course  to  pursue;  for  he  would  have 
been  able  from  them  to  learn  the  meaning  of  many 
things  that  were  a  puzzle  to  him  and  to  gather  fresh 
courage  for  the  battle.  It  is  a  common  thing,  however, 
for  young  believers  to  be  reticent  about  their  doubts 
and  fears.  They  hesitate  to  disclose  the  secret  fight- 
ings through  which  they  pass,  lest  they  should  seem  to 
cast  a  shadow  on  the  sincerity  of  their  confession  or 
bring  dishonor  on  the  name  of  Christ.  Let  us  not  be 
dogmatic  in  such  matters.  It  may  be  best,  after  all, 
for  a  man  to  wrestle  out  his  own  difficulties.  One 
thing  is  certain  beyond  even  a  peradventure,  that  in 
such  a  case  he  is  never  left  altogether  alone.  The 
Eternal  Spirit  that  "bloweth  where  He  listeth"  is  in 
sympathy  and  alliance  with  all  those  that  struggle  and 
aspire  toward  the  light.  Even  when  His  presence  is  not 
felt  nor  recognized  He  is  still  there,  quickening  and 
leading  and  always  waiting  for  the  complete  fulfill- 
ment of  the  conditions  to  shed  abroad  His  i^eace  and 
love.  David  Morton  in  due  time  found  it  to  be  so. 
Because  his  face  was  always  set  in  the  right  direction, 
he  reached  at  last  the  point  at  which  his  sky  cleared, 
his  doubts  all  vanished,  and  he  was  able  to  rejoice 
without  ceasing. 

28 


CHAPTER  III. 

Called  to  Preach  and  Answering  the  Call. 

'T'HE  old  Methodists  were  as  certain  that  God  calls 
*  some  men  to  preach  the  gospel  as  they  were  that 
He  calls  all  men  to  believe  it  and  obey  it.  From  their 
standpoint,  it  was  a  piece  of  inexcusable  presumption 
for  any  man  to  enter  the  ministry  without  a  special 
vocation  thereto  and  an  act  of  open  rebellion  for  him 
to  refuse  to  do  so  when  convinced  that  he  was  divinely 
designated  to  the  work.  And  they  had  good  Scriptural 
reasons  for  both  beliefs.  While  the  Lord  Jesus  was 
sitill  in  the  flesh  He  himself  singled  out  of  His  disciples 
those  whom  He  wished  to  surrender  everything  else  and 
to  devote  themselves  entirely  to  the  work  of  proclaiming 
the  Kingdom  of  God ;  and  when  He  went  away  He  did 
not  delegate  this  authority  of  choosing  His  ambassa- 
dors to  anybody  else.  On  the  contrary,  He  expressly 
reserved  it  in  His  own  hands.  Having  ascended  up  on 
high  and  seated  Himself  on  His  mediatorial  throne, 
"He  gave  gifts  unto  men."  St.  Paul  further  says :  "He 
gave  some  to  be  apostles;  and  some,  prophets;  and 
some,  evangelists;  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers;  for 
the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try, for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ;  till  we  all 

29 


DAVID    MORTON 


come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ."  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that,  according  to  this  teaching,  every  true 
minister  is  a  direct  gift  from  the  risen  Lord  to  His 
Church. 

The  divine  call  does  not  always  come  in  the  same 
way,  but  usually  follows  the  natural  idiosyncrasies  of 
human  character.  Sometimes  a  distinct  premonition 
of  it  is  felt  even  in  childhood.  I  have  known  not  a  few 
men  who  were  convinced  long  before  their  conversion 
that  sooner  or  later  they  must  preach.  David  Morton 
seems  to  have  had  some  such  anticipation.  As  a  usual 
thing,  however,  the  call  is  coincident  with  conver- 
sion or  follows  shortly  thereafter.  Of  course  it  is 
heard,  not  in  audible  tones,  but  only  in  the  depths  of 
the  spirit.  When  analyzed  as  far  as  it  can  be  analyzed, 
it  is  found  to  be  a  sense  of  obligation  to  preach  the 
gospel,  so  deeply  impressed  on  the  conscience  that  the 
man  who  is  the  subject  of  it  must  needs  interpret  it  as 
having  come  from  God.  Sometimes  it  has  a  compul- 
sory clearness  that  cannot  be  misunderstood,  and  then 
again  it  is  rather  vague  and  general,  leaving  its  mean- 
ing to  be  made  out  with  some  pains  and  difficulty.  A 
few  men  give  in  to  it  without  the  least  hesitation  and 
joyfully.  The  most  draw  back  at  first,  not  because 
they  are  unwilling  to  serve,  but  because  they  doubt 

30 


DAVID    MORTON 


their  fitness  for  so  great  a  work.  Some  utterly  refuse 
to  yield  and  go  through  an  ordeal  of  agony.  In  the 
case  of  these  the  Spirit  often  persists  for  months  and 
years,  though  now  and  then  He  seems  to  be  silenced  by 
defiant  disobedience.  Always,  however,  there  remains 
for  a  time  at  least  a  troubled  heart,  and  now  and  then 
there  follows  a  lapse  into  flagrant  sin  as  a  sort  of  re- 
treat from  known  duty. 

The  mind  of  the  Church,  and  especially  of  deeply 
experienced  and  nurtured  Christians,  is  often  a  help 
and  a  guide  to  those  whose  own  minds  are  not  clear  as 
to  their  duty.  The  Church  calls  nobody  and  dares  not 
presume  to  do  so.  But  in  proportion  as  she  is  filled 
with  the  Spirit  she  is  capable  of  noting  and  discrimi- 
nating the  true  signs  in  those  that  are  called  of  God. 
This  at  least  is  what  she  must  do,  for  it  lies  with  her 
to  give  or  refuse  a  visible  authorization  to  those  who 
apply  for  it;  and  she  must,  therefore,  canvass  every 
case  and  seek  to  find  out  whether  the  Lord  has  or  has 
not  spoken.  To  take  this  function  lightly,  as  if  it  were 
not  a  matter  of  grave  importance,  is  to  be  guilty  of  a 
serious  sin.  Among  Methodists  from  the  beginning 
there  have  been  three  accepted  tests  for  those  who  ask 
for  license:  Have  they  gifts,  a  good  natural  under- 
standing, with  the  capacity  to  acquire  knowledge  and 
the  power  to  speak  clearly  and  forcibly?  Have  they 
graces,  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  abiding  and  abounding 

31 


DAVID    MORTON 


in  their  lives  ?  Have  they  fruits,  the  outcome  of  their 
spontaneous  and  unofficial  efforts  for  the  salvation  of 
others?  Where  these  three  signs  agree,  it  is  usually 
safe  for  the  Church  to  give  her  formal  consent  and 
approval. 

David  Morton  was  too  well  instructed  a  youth  not 
to  know  the  symptoms  when  they  came.  He  had  heard 
of  the  call  long  before  he  definitely  heard  it.  No  doubt 
he  had  listened  about  his  father's  hearthstone  to  the  old 
preachers  tell  how  they  had  been  summoned  to  the  work 
as  truly  as  Jonah  was  ordered  to  Nineveh  and  how, 
perhaps,  they  had  tried  to  flee,  as  Jonah  did,  but  had 
felt  the  detaining  hand  of  God  on  them.  Those,  then, 
were  not  entirely  novel  sensations  that  began  to  rise  up 
in  his  breast  soon  after  he  had  experienced  the  deep 
joy  of  sonship  in  his  heart.  It  is  pleasant  at  so  critical 
a  point  in  his  history  to  have  his  own  record  of  his 
mental  tribulations.  Nothing  that  anybody  else  could 
say  about  him  would  be  so  illuminating.  Here  is  what 
he  says: 

Soon  the  conviction  that  I  ought  to  become  a  preacher, 
which  I  had  experienced  years  before  my  conversion,  was 
renewed  with  added  force,  and  with  it  came  a  determina- 
tion that  I  would  not  do  so.  After  a  six  months'  contest 
between  conscience  and  inclination,  the  former  triumphed, 
and  I  made  a  few  efforts  under  many  disabilities  and 
much  discouragement. 

32 


5    «vM  t.      ^ 


DAVID    MORTON 


But  the  fight  was  not  over  yet,  by  any  means.  The 
^'disabilities"  were  real  ''discotiragements."  The  young 
preacher  did  not  find  it  easy  to  preach.  Probably  he 
found  it  much  harder  than  he  had  supposed.  Getting 
together  something  to  say  was  not  an  inconsiderable 
task,  and  trying  to  say  it  was  even  more  difficult.  If 
he  did  not  hesitate  and  stumble  in  his  utterance,  he  was 
not  like  most  of  his  brethren  that  have  gone  the  same 
way.  If  he  was  not  consciously  mortified  more  than 
once  by  the  poverty  of  his  thought  and  utterance,  then 
he  missed  what  hundreds  of  others  have  endured.  It 
may  be,  too,  that  somebody  was  kind  enough  to  tell 
him  that  he  could  never  learn  to  be  much  of  a  preacher. 
I  am  not  speaking  on  information,  but  simply  on  sup- 
position. Anyhow,  he  found  the  way  to  be  anything 
but  smooth  before  him. 

It  was  not  merely  the  question  of  preaching  that  was 
up  for  settlement  in  his  mind,  but  the  question  of  be- 
coming a  traveling  preacher.  If  he  could  have  re- 
mained at  home,  following  some  useful  occupation, 
leading  a  decent  Christian  life,  and  holding  a  place  in 
the  ranks  of  the  local  ministry,  he  might  possibly  have 
been  content.  But  the  thought  of  giving  up  everything 
in  the  world  that  he  had  dreamed  of  as  desirable  and 
of  becoming  a  homeless  wanderer  on  the  earth,  with 
the  certainty  that  he  could  look  for  nothing  more  than 
a  bare  pittance  for  a  living  and  the  uncertainty  whether 
3  33 


DAVID    MORTON 


he  would  always  have  even  that,  caused  him  to  hesitate 
and  draw  back  once  more.  Nothing  could  be  franker 
than  his  self -revelation : 

The  conviction  that  I  ought  to  give  myself  up  wholly 
to  the  work  of  the  ministry  involved  a  struggle  infinitely 
fiercer  than  the  other  and  drove  me  to  the  verge  of  mad- 
ness and  oftener  than  once  to  contemplate  suicide.  But 
a  gracious  God  watched  over  me;  and  my  friends,  satis- 
fied that  I  was  in  no  condition  to  act  for  myself,  took  my 
case  in  hand  and  acted  for  me.  I  was  licensed  to  exhort 
and  to  preach  and  recommended  to  the  Annual  Confer- 
ence without  being  consulted. 

Blessed  is  the  young  man  who  has  keen-eyed  and 
loving  friends  ready  to  help  him  when  his  own  faculties 
are  so  numbed  and  dulled  that  he  cannot  help  himself. 
Blessed,  too,  is  the  young  man  who,  through  whatever 
mental  storms  he  has  passed,  has  yet  walked  so  consist- 
ently and  uprightly  in  his  outward  life  that  those  who 
know  him  most  thoroughly  are  willing  to  trust  him 
with  the  grave  responsibilities  of  the  Christian  ministry. 
A  clean  and  virtuous  boyhood  is  the  best  preparation 
for  any  high  duties  that  may  come  in  later  life.  In  the 
Quarterly  Conference  that  commended  David  Morton 
for  a  place  in  the  Methodist  ministry  there  was  prob- 
ably not  a  man  but  had  been  acquainted  with  him  in- 
timately from  his  earliest  years.  The  sober  judgment 
of  such  a  body  was  a  vote  of  confidence  that  must  have 
meant  a  great  deal  to  him  and  to  all  the  members  of 

34 


DAVID    MORTON 


his  family.     That  it  gave  him  new  courage  to  go  for- 
ward is  beyond  a  doubt. 

Another  quotation  tells  the  rest  of  the  story : 

My  father  gave  me  a  horse,  my  mother  made  ready  my 
clothes,  my  old  class  leader  presented  me  with  a  Bible 
and  a  pair  of  saddlebags,  and  my  former  pastor  took  me 
with  him  to  Conference.  The  struggle  in  my  own  breast 
continued  and  grew  fiercer  till  just  at  nightfall  on  the  last 
day  of  the  session  I  found  myself  in  a  secluded  spot  on 
the  bank  of  the  Ohio  River,  prepared  to  plunge  into  a 
watery  grave.  Just  then  the  Holy  Spirit  suggested  just 
one  more  prayer  before  the  deed  was  done ;  and,  kneeling 
in  the  wet  sand  under  a  willow  bush,  I  wrestled  until 
after  dark  and  at  length,  by  God's  help,  made  a  full  and 
final  surrender  of  all  I  had  or  was  or  ever  expected  to  be 
to  Him  and  consecrated  myself  to  His  sole  service  for 
time  and  for  eternity  and  rose  from  my  knees  as  happy  as 
I  shall  ever  be  this  side  of  Heaven.  In  the  strength  of 
this  consecration  I  have  been  for  nearly  thirty-nine  years 
"traveling  on." 

How  vividly,  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  twoscore 
years,  he  thus  recalls  what  was  a  sort  of  final  turning 
point  in  his  career!  He  continued  to  "travel  on"  till 
he  reached  the  end  of  his  pilgrimage  and  scaled  the 
Mount  of  God. 

35 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Itinerant  Preacher. 

IT  has  been  made  manifest  in  the  foregoing  chapter 
*  that  during  the  whole  session  of  the  first  Annual 
Conference  which  David  Morton  attended  he  was  full 
of  perplexity  and  distress.  Not  till  after  the  session  had 
ended  and  he  had  wandered  off  to  a  sequestered  spot  on 
the  banks  of  the  Ohio  River  did  he  obtain  any  measure 
of  relief.  Nevertheless,  he  was  all  the  time  a  keen  and 
interested  observer  of  the  Conference  proceedings. 
Nothing  of  importance  seems  to  have  escaped  his  no- 
tice. Alt  that  he  saw  and  heard  was  laid  up  as  a  per- 
manent possession  in  his  mind.  Thus  early  did  he  be- 
gin the  accumulation  of  that  wide  and  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  the  practical  working  of  the  Methodist  econo- 
my which  he  displayed  in  his  later  years. 

It  is  a  grave  pity  that  he  did  not  keep  a  continuous 
journal  from  the  beginning  of  his  ministry.  Such  a 
journal  he  seems  to  have  begun  more  than  once,  but 
only  the  scantest  fragments  of  it  were  preserved.  He 
possessed  the  happy  knack  of  catching  the  interesting 
aspects  of  events,  and  he  knew  exactly  how  to  report 
them  in  a  lively  and  readable  form.  His  oral  reminis- 
cences were  an  endless  delight  to  all  his  friends.  An 
autobiographical  volume  from  his  pen  or  dictated  by 

36 


DAVID    MORTON 


him  would  have  become  a  part  of  the  permanent  Hter- 
atiire  of  the  Church.  In  trying  to  write  even  a  brief 
sketch  of  him  one  is  constantly  thinking  how  much 
better  it  would  have  been  if  he  had  only  written  about 
himself. 

In  an  address  delivered  at  Hopkinsville,  Kentucky,  in 
September,  1896,  on  the  occasion  of  the  semicentennial 
of  the  organization  of  the  Louisville  Conference  and 
made  a  matter  of  record,  he  drops  into  a  vein  of  recol- 
lection and  tells  a  good  many  things  about  the  session 
of  the  Conference  that  received  him  on  trial.  The 
form  and  manner  of  his  narrative  are  characteristic  of 
him.  For  example,  he  notes  the  fact  that  both  Bishop 
Joshua  Soule  and  Bishop  William  Capers  were  present, 
the  former  as  an  honored  and  welcome  visitor  and  the 
latter  as  the  regular  President  of  the  body.  While  he 
does  not  say  it  in  so  many  words,  he  certainly  conveys 
the  impression  that  Soule  was  the  chief  figure  in  his 
eye.  He  had  heard  the  senior  Bishop  preach  under 
very  impressive  circumstances  ten  or  twelve  years  be- 
fore and  had  never  forgotten  the  occasion.  Besides 
that,  he  was  familiar  with  the  great  part  Soule  had 
played  in  saving  the  constitution  of  the  Church  during 
the  agitations  of  1820-28  and  with  his  noble  stand  for 
the  South  in  1844.  Above  all,  he  could  not  fail  to 
discern  the  majesty  of  Soule's  bearing,  and  he  found  in 
it  an  appeal  to  his  own  spirit.    This  does  not  imply  that 

Z7 


DAVID    MORTON 


he  was  blind  or  indifferent  to  the  really  great  gifts  of 
person  and  character  that  were  possessed  by  the  gentle 
and  eloquent  Capers.  Not  at  all.  It  means  only  that 
his  mind  was  attracted  chiefly  by  the  towering  old  New 
Englander,  who  for  a  full  generation  had  faced  every 
storm  that  could  blow  upon  him  from  any  quarter  and 
had  come  to  be  generally  regarded  as  a  sort  of  break- 
water against  radical  or  revolutionary  schemes  of  every 
sort.  The  admirations  of  a  young  man  are  a  discovery 
and  revelation  of  his  own  character. 

If  the  appearance  and  manners  of  the  bishops  caught 
young  Morton's  notice,  still  more  did  the  devotional 
exercises,  and  especially  the  singing,  affect  him.  He 
says  of  it : 

Among  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  Confer- 
ences of  that  date  was  the  singing  by  the  preachers. 
There  were  always  some  who  had  fine  voices ;  and  while 
they  were  not  in  every  case  perfectly  trained,  their  pos- 
sessors sang  well.  When  they  led  off,  till  the  end  of  the 
stanza  was  reached  and  the  congregation  joined  in  the 
refrain,  it  made  a  chorus  which  I  have  always  thought 
was  the  perfection  of  Church  music,  melodious,  spirited, 
and  deeply  spiritual.  Under  it  souls  were  often  born  to 
God,  and  the  saints  were  edified  and  strengthened.  The 
Rev.  William  B.  Maxey  was  leader  at  this  Conference; 
and,  after  a  lapse  of  forty-three  years,  I  still  retain  a 
lively  recollection  of  his  soul-stirring  notes,  the  echoes  of 
which  have  in  many  a  dark  hour  cheered  me  onward  in 
my  pilgrim  way. 

38 


DAVID    MORTON 


When  the  appointments  were  read  out,  the  young 
itinerant  was  both  surprised  and  disappointed  to  find 
that  he  had  been  appointed  to  the  Mammoth  Cave  Cir- 
cuit. To  the  circuit  itself  he  had  no  particular  objec- 
tion. It  was  in  a  good  part  of  the  State  and  not  very 
far  from  his  own  home.  But,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
he  had  supposed  that  he  might  be  made  junior  preacher 
on  the  Russellville  Circuit  and  thus  have  an  oiDportunity 
on  week  days  to  finish  some  tasks  in  which  he  was  in- 
terested. No  doubt  it  was  better  for  him  to  be  detached 
at  once  from  all  secular  pursuits  and  to  learn  by  actual 
experience  that  his  sole  and  only  work  thereafter  was 
to  be  that  of  a  Methodist  preacher.  In  later  years  he 
himself  certainly  saw  it  in  that  light,  but  he  could  not 
see  it  so  at  the  time.  It  is  quite  possible  that  he  gave 
some  expression  to  his  discontent  either  in  words  or  in 
his  countenance,  for  he  was  never  disposed  to  be  secre- 
tive. What  was  in  his  mind  was  pretty  sure  to  come 
out.  Anyhow,  one  of  his  humorous  friends  made  an 
awkward  effort  to  cheer  him  by  telling  him  that  his 
charge  ^'offered  a  fine  opening  for  a  young  man."  It 
was  probably  after  that  incident  when,  as  narrated  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  he  went  to  a  sequestered  spot  on 
the  Ohio  River  and  wrestled  out  all  his  troubles  with 
Almighty  God. 

After  the  Conference  closed,  he  appears  to  have  re- 
turned at  once  for  a  brief  season  to  his  father's  house, 

39 


DAVID    MORTON 


or  at  least  to  have  visited  it  a  little  later.  For  some 
reason  or  other,  one  of  his  father's  servants  made  the 
journey  with  him  thence  to  his  circuit.  A  little  scrap 
of  an  old  letter  written  by  him  from  his  first  stopping 
place  on  his  circuit  on  January  24,  1854,  contains  this 
significant  paragraph : 

Here  we  dined,  and  John  started  back.  It  was  with 
some  difficulty  that  I  restrained  the  tears  when  I  saw  him 
leave.  The  tender  cords  of  my  soul  are  touched  when  I 
think  of  bygone  days.  I  abominate  slavery  most  heartily, 
but  I  abominate  still  more  that  tenet  of  abolitionism  which 
teaches  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  affection  be- 
tween master  and  slave.  Most  gladly  would  I  submit  to 
almost  any  reasonable  inconvenience  in  order  to  situate 
comfortably  one  of  my  father's  negroes. 

The  first  Sunday  following  his  arrival  he  preached 
at  Old  Zion  Church.  It  comforted  him  somewhat  to 
learn  that  he  was  traveling  in  illustrious  footsteps ;  for 
at  that  place,  as  he  was  told,  ''the  great  McKendree  had 
once  spread  his  hands  and  prayed  for  the  peace  of 
Zion."  His  text,  which  he  tells  us  was  a  favorite  with 
him,  was  Ephesians  ii.  8 :  "For  by  grace  are  ye  saved 
through  faith;  and  that  not  of  yourselves:  it  is  the  gift 
of  God."  He  certainly  could  not  have  chosen  a  passage 
lying  closer  than  this  to  the  very  heart  of  the  gospel. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  the  fact  that  from  the  very  out- 
set he  centered  his  preaching  in  the  supreme  truths  of 
religion.    I  should  like  very  much  to  know  just  how  the 

40 


•-.^' 


■?v  .  T># 


n 


o  - 


if?  5  V  S  h  r  y, 

+->  O  lii  ^  ^^  tn  r- 

o  ^    2.§  "^  '^ 

>«  -  ^2^    «:^ 

•^  occcS     «> 
C .-  .-H  o  >,  a;  ^ 

CD  ir.'ii  >,ro--/::  (v,  j- 
o  ^Z>.°t^    O 

fl  ^  C^  >-r  >,a>  t^ 
9  01  o)  <iJ'-3  cD-a  t.'c 

S    <p'*-'  C  o  "^  OjQ  bo 

'S  §  'II  =^2  M  ^  b  ^"S 

^      5  '^  "^  ^  ^ 
w  '^^  a?^  P  9  03 


(^    "3 


^H     9 


5'^ 


CD  OJ 


•  •     •  • 


DAVID    MORTON 


congregation  received  his  sermon,  but  I  have  been  un- 
able to  find  a  single  word  from  any  source  on  that  point. 
He  himself  informs  us,  however,  that  at  his  afternoon 
appointment  in  another  church  he  found  not  a  soul 
present  to  meet  him,  from  which  fact  it  is  fairly  pre- 
sumable that  if  his  morning  discourse  was  a  signal 
success  the  tidings  of  it  had  not  spread  very  far.  After 
it  became  altogether  evident  to  him  that  nobody  was 
coming  out  to  hear  him,  he  determined  to  have  a  season 
of  prayer  and  was  much  refreshed  by  the  exercise. 
His  notes  say :  "I  was  somewhat  discouraged,  but  had 
no  notion  of  turning  back."  Toward  the  close  of  the 
afternoon  he  ventured  to  ride  to  the  home  of  one  of 
his  members,  where  he  found  kindly  entertainment  and 
tarried  several  days.  That  he  already  knew  how  to 
make  himself  an  agreeable  guest  is  altogether  certain. 
I  very  much  doubt  whether  he  ever  failed  to  gain  the 
affectionate  good  will  of  the  inmates  of  any  home  into 
which  he  entered. 

It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  there  was  anything  sensa- 
tional in  his  labors  and  achievements  during  this  year. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  not  in  him  to  be  sensational. 
By  the  very  bent  of  his  nature  he  followed  the  beaten 
paths  and  discharged  the  duties  that  came  next  to  hand. 
He  was  no  prodigy  of  parts,  but  just  a  devout  and  sen- 
sible youth  who  knew  nothing  except  to  go  right  for- 
ward in  the  track  that  Providence  opened  to  him.    He 

4i 


DAVID    MORTON 


studied  diligently,  if  not  widely,  matured  his  sermons  in 
a  rather  slow  and  deliberate  way  and  preached  them 
round  the  circuit  till  he  had  them  well  in  hand,  visited 
and  prayed  in  the  homes  of  the  people,  held  protracted 
meetings  whenever  he  found  a  good  opening  for  them, 
and  looked  after  the  Conference  collections  with  scru- 
pulous care.  It  is  also  true  that  he  did  his  best  to  circu- 
late good  books  and  to  get  subscribers  for  the  periodical 
literature  of  the  Church,  for  we  have  positive  evidence 
that  a  few  years  later  he  had  become  noted  among  the 
brethren  for  his  activity  in  this  respect.  I  should  judge 
that  nobody  suspected  him  of  being  a  genius  or  pre- 
dicted that  he  would  rise  to  the  highest  places  in  the 
Church.  He  was  fortunate  enough  to  miss  a  good  deal 
of  the  silly  praise  that  inflates  and  spoils  so  many 
young  preachers.  But  as  the  months  went  on  every- 
body came  to  realize  that  he  was  perfectly  dependable, 
that  he  met  his  engagements,  that  he  did  not  slight  any 
of  his  tasks,  and  that  he  was  honestly  bent  on  acquitting 
himself  as  well  as  he  could  before  God  and  man.  All 
the  time  he  was  making  some  progress  and  holding 
whatever  ground  he  gained. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  he  met  with  an  accident 
which  very  nearly  cost  him  his  life.  On  his  way  to 
meet  an  appointment  he  tried  to  ford  a  swollen  creek 
and  barely  escaped  drowning.  To  avoid  such  a  catas- 
trophe it  became  necessary  for  him  to  cast  off  his  over- 

42 


DAVID   MORTON 


coat  and  overshoes,  turn  his  horse  loose,  throw  away 
his  overcoat  and  rubbers,  and  swim  for  the  shore. 
When  help  finally  reached  him,  his  clothes  were  frozen 
stiff.  Fortunately  for  him,  he  was  taken  to  the  home 
of  one  of  his  members  who  lived  near  at  hand  and  was 
cared  for  with  great  kindness.  His  horse  drifted  down- 
stream and  at  last  got  safely  to  land.  It  is  told  by  a 
gentleman  who  was  present  when  the  saddlebags  were 
recovered  and  brought  to  him  that  he  at  once  poured 
out  their  contents  into  the  middle  of  the  floor  and  paid 
no  attention  to  anything  else  till  he  found  a  little  am- 
brotype,  examined  it  to  see  if  it  were  damaged,  and 
stowed  it  safely  in  his  pocket.  After  that  he  quietly 
proceeded  to  sort  and  sift  his  other  belongings.  Forty 
years  afterwards  I  spent  a  week  in  the  same  room  with 
him  at  a  hotel  in  Ocala,  Florida.  One  morning  he  pro- 
duced that  same  ambrotype  and  showed  it  to  me  as 
his  most  valued  earthly  possession.  It  was  the  picture 
of  a  fair  young  woman  of  about  eighteen  whom  he  had 
loved  with  a  deep  and  passionate  devotion  since  his 
boyhood  days.  There  was  a  staying  power  in  his  af- 
fection. 

Before  the  close  of  his  first  year  in  the  itinerancy — 
that  is  to  say,  on  August  8,  1854 — this  young  woman, 
having  already  been  for  two  or  three  years  engaged  to 
him,  became  his  wife.  Her  name  was  Hannah  Wilson 
Bottomley.    She  was  the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 

43 


DAVID    MORTON 


Bottomley  and  his  wife,  born  Hannah  Wilson.  This 
Thomas  Bottomley  was  an  Englishman  out  of  York- 
shire, who  came  to  America  in  his  early  manhood. 
Prior  to  that  event  he  had  been  a  local  preacher  for  five 
years  in  his  native  land,  and  he  served  eleven  years  in 
the  same  office  after  crossing  the  sea.  In  1840,  being 
then  about  thirty-five  years  of  age,  he  started  West, 
expecting  to  become  a  member  of  the  Arkansas  Con- 
ference, but,  being  providentially  delayed  in  Kentucky, 
entered  the  itinerancy  in  the  Kentucky  Conference  on 
trial  and  remained  a  member,  first  of  that  body  and 
afterwards  of  the  Louisville  Conference,  till  his  death 
at  nearly  ninety,  in  1894,  having  preached  the  gospel 
all  told,  almost  seventy-two  years.  In  the  course  of 
time  he  became  a  man  of  real  note  among  his  brethren. 
For  fifteen  years  he  served  the  best  charges  in  the  city 
of  Louisville,  and  for  nine  years  he  was  a  presiding 
elder.  After  his  demise  Dr.  Morton  wrote  a  most  filial 
memoir  of  him  for  the  Church  Press,  saying,  among 
other  things : 

He  was  remarkable  for  the  clearness  and  force  with 
which  he  presented  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  and  for 
the  zeal  with  which  he  enforced  the  practical  duties  of 
Christianity.  He  was  jealous  almost  to  impatience  of  the 
slightest  departure  of  our  preachers  and  writers  from  the 
straight  line  of  orthodox  Methodist  teaching  and  could 
not  tolerate  In  them  any  lapse  from  a  godly  walk  and 
conversation.     His  preaching  was  always  spiritual  and 

44 


DAVID    MORTON 


during  his  prime  was  powerful  to  move  the  masses  that 
heard  him.    He  was  a  close  student  all  his  life. 

His  wife,  to  whom  he  was  wedded  when  they  were 
both  young,  was  also  of  English  birth.  She  was  ev- 
ery way  worthy  to  be  the  companion  of  such  a  man, 
walking  gently  but  courageously  by  his  side  and  sharing 
alike  his  joys  and  his  sorrows  with  a  serene  and  steady 
spirit  for  more  than  half  a  century  and  then  leaving 
him  for  the  better  land  just  twelve  years  before  his  own 
departure. 

With  such  parents  and  the  training  which  they  gave 
her,  it  was  natural  that  Mrs.  Morton  should  drop  at 
once  and  easily  into  the  life  and  work  of  her  young 
husband.  In  her  case  marrying  was  not  like  taking  a 
leap  into  the  dark.  Though  still  a  mere  girl  in  age,  she 
was  mature  far  beyond  her  years,  and  she  knew  perfect- 
ly well  what  she  was  doing.  With  her  eyes  wide  open, 
and  realizing  that  the  road  before  her  was  likely  to  be 
in  many  ways  a  rough  and  difficult  one,  she  gave  herself 
wholly  and  utterly  to  David  Morton  because  she  loved 
him.  Comely  in  person,  uncommonly  bright  and  vigor- 
ous in  intellect,  thoroughly  well  educated,  and  a  devout 
and  earnest  Christian,  she  entered  on  the  long  road 
without  weakness  or  fear.  To  say  that  she  became  a 
great  wife  is  but  to  speak  the  sober  truth.  She  shirked 
no  duty  of  her  station  nor  drew  back  from  any  of  its 
responsibilities.    Her  mere  presence  helped  her  husband 

45 


DAVID    MORTON 


on  all  the  ground.  If  there  was  any  weak  spot  in  him, 
she  knew  exactly  how  to  strengthen  it.  What  great- 
ness he  achieved  was  in  large  part,  as  he  himself 
knew  and  acknowledged  most  joyfully,  due  to  the  sus- 
taining power  of  her  hands.  When  her  children  came 
— and,  first  and  last,  there  were  nine  of  them — she  wel- 
comed them  with  true  motherly  delight  and  enriched 
their  lives  with  a  tender  and  exhaustless  love.  It  is 
quite  certain  that  she  never  for  one  moment  entertained 
the  thought  that  she  had  any  higher  or  holier  vocation 
in  life  than  to  bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admo- 
nition of  the  Lord.  In  due  time  for  all  this  holy  fidelity 
she  received  her  reward.  The  long  years  of  her  wid- 
owhood have  been  cheered  by  the  unfailing  affection 
which  her  children  have  showered  upon  her.  Now  that 
she  has  passed  the  line  of  fourscore  and  is  looking  wist- 
fully toward  the  Invisible  City,  she  finds  comfort  and 
cheer  in  their  reverence  and  honor. 

And  David  Morton  was  as  true  and  as  good  a  hus- 
band as  ever  blessed  a  woman's  heart.  A  gentleman  by 
instinct  and  training  and  a  Christian  by  conviction,  he 
knew  what  was  due  to  his  wife  and  paid  the  debt  with- 
out stint  or  reserve.  Nor  did  he  ever  suffer  the  early 
glory  of  his  marriage  to  die  down  and  fade  away. 
Through  all  the  years,  and  on  the  very  day  when  he 
closed  his  eyes  upon  the  scenes  of  time,  he  remained  a 
devoted  and  knightly  lover,  showing  to  the  companion 

46 


DAVID    MORTON 


of  his  youth  not  only  a  steadfast  and  impeccable  faith- 
fulness, but  also  a  high  and  serious  courtesy  most  beau- 
tiful to  behold.  Not  that  he  indulged  in  any  cheap 
ostentation  toward  her.  Not  at  all.  He  knew  that 
some  things  are  too  sacred  to  be  made  matter  of  com- 
mon talk.  But  to  those  to  whom  he  gave  his  confidence 
and  whom  he  suffered  to  come  into  the  holy  places  of 
his  heart  he  revealed  that  great  depth  of  married  love 
of  which  weak  and  shallow  souls  are  incapable.  I  have 
never  known  a  man  whose  domestic  affections  kept 
more  steadily  in  bloom  than  his. 

He  was  quite  as  much  attached  to  his  children  as  he 
had  been  to  his  parents.  Himself  the  most  loyal  of 
sons,  he  was  also  the  most  devoted  of  fathers.  What- 
ever he  could  do  for  his  children  in  any  way,  he  did  it 
without  stint.  He  gave  them  first  all  the  tenderness  of 
his  great  soul  and  after  that  every  form  and  kind  of 
care  that  he  could  bestow  upon  them ;  and  they  in  turn 
lavished  upon  him  a  most  unusual  measure  of  respect, 
admiration,  and  love.  In  their  eyes  he  was  never  less 
than  good  and  great.  While  he  was  living  they  took 
a  just  and  high  view  of  his  deserts,  and  since  his  de- 
parture they  have  kept  his  memory  fresh  and  green  in 
their  hearts.  Nine  children  came  into  his  home,  five 
living  to  maturity  and  four  dying  in  infancy,  the  fol- 
lowing being  the  record :  Mary  Emma ;  infant  son,  born 
and  died  the  same  day;  Charles  Shipley,  died  an  in- 

47 


DAVID    MORTON 


fant;  Thomas  Bottomley;  Joseph;  ^aniel;  Hinds,  a 
daughter,  died  in  infancy;  Nannie,  died  in  infancy; 
and  Marmaduke  Beckwith. 

The  salary  on  this  first  circuit  was  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars.  Marrying  on  such  a  stipend  was  taking 
a  considerable  risk.  Most  worldly-wise  people  would 
have  shaken  their  heads  and  pronounced  it  a  piece  of 
youthful  folly.  Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  there  are 
many  things  to  be  said  in  support  of  such  a  view.  But 
David  Morton  was  born  with  the  instinct  of  thrift  in 
him.  It  would  have  been  hard  to  put  him  in  any  place 
where  he  would  not  have  been  able  to  make  a  subsist- 
ence. This  does  not  imply  that  he  was  close  or  stingy. 
He  did  not  know  what  niggardliness  meant.  Few  men 
in  the  histoi-y  of  the  Methodist  Church  have  given 
away  a  larger  proportion  of  their  incomes.  At  the 
same  time  he  knew  that  money  always  represents  some- 
body's toil  and  self-denial,  and  he  never  squandered  it 
for  foolish  purposes.  When  he  turned  it  loose  he  did 
it  for  the  accomplishment  of  deliberate  and  judicious 
ends.  It  is  taking  no  risk  to  say  further  that  he  never 
in  any  community  left  an  unpaid  obligation  of  so  much 
as  a  dollar.  Commercial  honesty  was  imbedded  in  him. 
It  was  a  part  of  his  inheritance  from  a  long  line  of  up- 
right forefathers. 

To  be  sure,  life  in  rural  Kentucky  at  the  time  of 
which  I  write  was  very  simple  and  inexpensive.    Many 

48 


Thomas  Bottomley 

1805-1894 

Thomas  Bottomley,  the  father  of  Mrs.  David  Morton,  was  an  Eng- 
lishman out  of  Yorkshire  who  came  to  America  in  his  early  man- 
hood. Prior  to  that  event  he  had  been  a  local  preacher  for  five 
years  in  his  native  land  and  he  served  eleven  years  in  the  same 
office  after  crossing  the  sea.  Iiv  1840,  being  then  thirty-five  years 
of  age,  he  started  West  expecting  to  become  a  member  of  the 
Arkansas  Conference,  but  being  Providentially  delayed  entered  the 
itinerancy  in  the  Kentucky  Conference  on  trial  and  remained  a 
member  first  of  that  body  and  afterwards  of  the  Louisville  Con- 
ference till  his  death  at  nearly  ninety,  having  preached  the  gospel, 
all  told,  almost  seventy-two  years. 


DAVID    MORTON 


hospitable  homes  on  the  circuit  were  freely  opened  to 
the  preacher  and  his  family,  and  many  household  sup- 
plies, such  as  only  the  very  rich  can  now  afford  to  pur- 
chase, found  their  way  to  the  parsonage  from  generous 
friends.  All  these  things  helped  to  smooth  the  way. 
And,  besides,  while  our  David  Morton  did  not  intend 
ever  to  be  a  pensioner  or  a  pauper  upon  the  bounty  of 
his  father  and  brothers,  he  must,  nevertheless,  have  got 
a  good  deal  of  comfort  from  the  knowledge  that  in  an 
emergency  he  would  always  be  able  to  draw  a  sight 
draft  on  any  one  of  them  without  any  fear  of  having 
it  go  to  protest. 

The  Conference  of  1854  met  in  Russellville ;  and  the 
young  circuit  rider,  with  twelve  months'  experience  in 
his  vocation  behind  him,  went  up  to  the  session  and 
took  his  bride,  who  had  made  the  last  round  on  his  cir- 
cuit with  him.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  he  was  in  a  far 
better  frame  of  mind  than  he  had  been  a  year  before. 
For  one  thing,  he  had  now  become  fully  settled  in  the 
conviction  that  it  was  his  duty  to  live  and  die  an  itiner- 
ant preacher.  For  many  months  he  had  experienced 
no  return  of  his  distressing  doubts  and  uncertainties, 
though  it  is  likely,  considering  his  peculiarities  of  tem- 
perament, that  he  still  had  his  *^ips  and  downs."  Along 
with  his  increase  of  religious  peace  and  stability,  he  was 
jubilantly  happy  in  his  marriage.  Then,  too,  he  was 
glad  to  get  back  for  a  full  week  among  his  relatives  and 
4  49 


DAVID    MORTON 


old  friends.  Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the 
strength  of  his  local  attachments.  After  his  death  Dr. 
Gross  Alexander  said  of  him  in  a  very  judicious  per- 
sonal tribute : 

His  devotion  to  the  home  of  his  childhood,  the  haunts 
of  his  early  life,  and  the  friends  of  his  early  days  was 
very  beautiful.  He  loved  Russellville ;  he  loved  Logan 
County ;  he  loved  its  beautiful  rounded  hills ;  he  loved  its 
creeks  and  woods ;  he  loved  its  very  clay.  He  loved  the 
old  homestead  and  the  family  graveyard  in  which  his 
dear  ones  were  buried  with  something  of  the  feeling  of 
a  homesick  child  who  has  just  seen  its  parents  buried 
and  has  been  taken  away  to  live  among  strangers.  This 
feeling  he  retained  amid  all  the  cares  of  his  busy  public 
life  and  down  to  the  hour  of  his  death. 

It  is  as  certain  as  anything  could  be  that  while  the 
Conference  was  going  on  he  visited  about  a  good  deal 
through  the  wide  circle  of  his  kinsfolk  and  did  his  full 
duty  as  a  trencherman  at  the  groaning  tables  for  which 
the  community  was  famous  and  that  his  face  lighted 
up  with  pride  whenever  any  reference  was  made  to  his 
wife. 

The  sessions  of  the  Conference  itself  were  unevent- 
ful except  in  one  particular.  Those  who  are  at  all 
familiar  with  the  history  of  those  days  are  aware  that 
the  public  mind  was  full  of  feeling  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  Besides  the  extremists,  on  the  one  side,  who 
held  that  slavery  was  a  divine  institution  sanctioned 

SO 


DAVID    MORTON 


by  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  those  on  the  other,  who 
maintained  that  it  was  intrinsically  sinful  and  at  war 
with  the  whole  spirit  of  Christianity,  there  was  an  im- 
mense body  of  people,  including  perhaps  the  majority 
of  the  citizenship  of  the  country,  who,  while  they 
thought  it  an  evil  to  be  deplored,  fully  reprobated  the 
means  by  which  it  had  been  introduced  and  would  have 
been  glad  to  see  it  disposed  of  in  some  orderly  and 
peaceable  way,  were  still  not  prepared  to  heap  maledic- 
tions on  the  heads  of  all  those  who  by  inheritance  or 
otherwise  were  slaveholders  and  still  less  prepared  to 
organize  a  propaganda  and  stir  up  sectional  bitterness 
and  strife  to  promote  the  cause  of  abolition.  The  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  which  met  at  Columbus,  Georgia,  in  May  of  the 
year  which  we  are  now  considering,  taking  the  ground 
that  special  legislation  against  particular  evils  would  in 
the  end  load  down  the  Discipline  of  the  Church  with  a 
vast  mass  of  enactments,  repealed  all  the  legislation  that 
had  hitherto  been  enacted  on  the  subject  of  slavery  and 
left  the  whole  matter  to  be  dealt  with  precisely  as  other 
evils  are. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  if  the  Conference  had  be- 
lieved that  the  bare  fact  of  holding  a  human  being  in 
bondage  was  sufficient  ground  for  excluding  a  man 
from  the  Kingdom  of  Grace  and  Glory,  it  would  not 
have  taken  the  action  which  it  did  take.    But,  with  the 

51 


DAVID    MORTON 


New  Testament  at  hand,  it  was  difficult,  if  not  impossi- 
ble, to  adopt  that  extreme  view.  There  were  slave- 
holders in  good  standing  in  the  Apostolic  Church  and 
in  the  Church  of  later  ages.  The  true  policy,  therefore, 
so  it  was  agreed,  was  to  preach  the  gospel  to  masters 
and  slaves  alike  and  let  it  work  out  its  natural  and  legit- 
imate consequences  rather  than  to  adopt  violent  meas- 
ures that  could  only  breed  strife  and  might  easily 
bring  the  Church  and  its  agencies  into  collision  with 
the  civil  authorities.  While  this  view  prevailed  in  the 
Church,  it  did  not  gain  the  consent  of  all.  Some  prom- 
inent men  of  the  Louisville  Conference  refused  tO'  ac- 
cept it.  One  of  them  in  particular,  the  Rev.  Creighton 
Gould,  insisted  on  declaring  his  antagonism  to  it  on 
the  Conference  floor  and,  after  an  animated  discussion, 
was  allowed  to  enter  on  the  Journal  his  protest  against 
the  action  of  the  General  Conference.  Writing  about 
it  in  1896,  Dr.  Morton  says:  ^This  little  episode  was 
the  only  ripple  on  the  waters  to  disturb  an  otherwise 
placid  and  most  delightful  session."  I  have  given  it 
so  much  space  simply  because  it  was  one  of  the  signs 
and  harbingers  of  that  awful  conflict  which  less  than 
ten  years  afterwards  drenched  the  land  in  blood  and 
came  near  to  destroying  forever  the  fair  fabric  of  con- 
stitutional freedom.  In  a  preceding  chapter  we  have 
seen  what  David  Morton's  personal  opinions  were.  He 
hated  slavery,  but  he  knew  that  it  was  here  and  that 

52 


DAVID    MORTON 


thousands  of  slaveholders  who  were  not  responsible 
for  its  existence  were  earnestly  trying  to  deal  with 
their  servants  in  a  Christian  spirit;  and  he  also  felt 
deep  down  in  his  soul  a  distrust  for  all  those  counsels 
of  violence  which  he  saw  were  certain  to  bring  on 
civil  war,  with  its  attendant  train  of  horrors.  Of 
course  he  took  no  part  in  the  debate,  being  still  only 
a  probationer;  but  he  listened  with  intelligent  interest 
to  what  was  said  by  others  and  did  his  own  thinking. 

In  those  days  two  years  was  the  time  limit  on  any 
pastoral  charge,  and  it  is  probable  that  at  least  fifty 
per  cent  of  the  preachers  moved  every  year.  This  was 
in  accordance  with  Wesley's  own  deliberate  view.  He 
said  without  hesitation  that  he  himself  could  not  preach 
to  the  same  congregation  for  twelve  months  without 
drying  up  in  his  ministry,  and  he  much  doubted  wheth- 
er anybody  else  could  do  better.  The  itinerancy  be- 
came a  part  of  his  system,  not  merely  because  the  most 
of  his  early  preachers  were  unlearned  men  with  a  lim- 
ited stock  of  knowledge,  but  also  for  deeper  reasons. 
He  preferred  it  on  principle.  Whether  David  Morton 
wanted  to  return  to  the  Mammoth  Cave  Circuit  or  not, 
I  cannot  say.  Certainly  he  was  not  surprised  when  he 
was  changed  to  Campbellsville  Circuit,  in  Taylor  Coun- 
ty. Concerning  his  work  in  this  latter  field,  I  have  not 
been  able  to  secure  any  copious  data.  That  it  was  suc- 
cessful, however,  is  reasonably  certain  from  the  fact 

52 


DAVID    MORTON 


that  he  remained  there  two  full  years  and  formed  some 
of  the  most  enduring  friendships  of  his  life.  In  the 
home  of  one  of  his  members,  Mr.  Richard  Cowherd,  a 
wealthy  and  warm-hearted  planter,  his  first  child  was 
born,  an  event  which  ever  thereafter  drew  and  held  the 
two  families  close  together.  Mr.  Cowherd  put  at  the 
disposal  of  his  pastor  and  wife  the  best  of  everything 
that  his  plantation  afforded  and  did  it  in  so  spK>ntaneous 
and  generous  a  way  as  to  double  the  value  of  all  his 
benefactions.  His  name  became  a  household  memory 
among  the  Mortons.  Over  and  again  the  story  of  his 
unsolicited  and  gracious  courtesies  was  repeated  in  the 
ears  of  the  children,  as  they  came  and  grew  up,  until 
they  knew  it  by  heart.  The  cynical  belief  that  there  is 
no  real  gratitude  in  the  world  is  effectively  disproved 
by  incidents  of  this  sort. 

In  1855  the  Conference  met  at  Greenville,  with 
Bishop  Robert  Paine  in  the  chair.  This  was  not  the 
Bishop's  first  official  appearance  in  that  part  of  the 
connection.  He  had  held  the  Louisville  Conference 
once  before,  in  185 1,  and  had  left  a  great  impression. 
Everybody  was  glad  to  see  him  back.  He  had  nature's 
stamp  of  greatness  on  him  and  the  finished  work  of 
grace  in  him.  In  his  preaching  he  was  somewhat  ir- 
regular and  uneven,  as  most  uncommon  preachers  are. 
At  his  best  he  towered  to  wonderful  heights,  equaling 
the  foremost  of  his  brethren  and  surpassing  the  most 

54 


Mrs.   Thomas  Bottomley 

Born  Hannah  Wilson 

1805-1882 

Thomas  Bottomley' s  wife,  to  whom  he  was  wedded  when  they  were 
both  young,  was  also  of  English  birth.  She  was  every  way  worthy 
to  be  the  companion  of  such  a  man,  walking  gently  but  courage- 
ously by  his  side  and  sharing  alike  his  joys  and  his  sorrows  with  a 
serene  and  steady  spirit  for  more  than  half  a  century  and  then 
leaving  him  for  the  better  land  just  twelve  years  before  his  own 
departure. 


DAVID    MORTON 


of  them;  but  sometimes — ^and  neither  he  himself  nor 
anybody  else  could  tell  just  when  it  was  going  to  hap- 
pen— he  gravely  disappointed  public  expectation.  As 
a  presiding  officer  he  was  well-nigh  perfect  and  car- 
ried on  in  direct  succession  the  great  traditions  of  Wil- 
liam McKendree.  The  distinguished  lawyers  and  poli- 
ticians who  attended  his  Conferences  pronounced  him 
the  most  accomplished  parliamentarian  they  had  ever 
known.  He  wasted  no  time,  but  kept  the  business 
moving  rapidly  and  smoothly  from  the  first  day  till  the 
last.  His  manners  were  easy  and  courtly,  and  his 
spirit  was  that  of  one  who  had  been  much  with  Christ. 
To  be  brought  into  contact  with  such  a  man  for  even 
a  brief  period  was  a  real  education  in  the  social  amen- 
ities. 

David  Morton  had  now  completed  his  two  years' 
probation  and  was  eligible  both  to  full  membership  in 
the  Conference  and  to  deacon's  orders.  The  Confer- 
ence having  elected  him,  he  was  accordingly  ordained 
by  the  imposition  of  the  good  Bishop's  hands,  a  fact 
to  which  he  always  looked  back  with  extreme  pleasure. 

At  that  time  there  had  been  no  large  extension  of 
railroads  in  Kentucky.  Not  even  carriages  and  bug- 
gies were  common.  Everybody — that  is,  nearly  every- 
body— traveled  on  horseback.  Men  and  women  alike 
learned  how  to  sit  straight  and  to  hold  the  reins  aright. 
The  great  majority  of  the  preachers  came  up  to  their 

55 


DAVID    MORTON 


annual  gatherings  on  their  own  nags.  To  see  them 
coming  in  or  going  out,  usually  in  larger  or  smaller 
groups,  was  a  pleasant  spectacle,  as  the  writer  of  these 
pages  is  prepared  to  say  from  personal  experience. 
Nearly  all  the  itinerants  were  good  judges  of  horse 
flesh  and  knew  how  to  buy,  sell,  or  swap  to  good  ad- 
vantage. Some  of  them,  in  fact,  got  the  reputation  of 
being  a  little  too  smart  in  such  transactions.  In  an 
address  delivered  at  Hopkinsville,  Kentucky,  as  late  as 
1896  Mr.  Morton  tells  about  this  particular  Conference 
at  Greenville  and  lets  drop  some  characteristic  remarks 
about  the  relation  of  horses  to  the  spread  of  the  gospel. 
It  will  not,  I  am  sure,  be  out  of  place  to  quote  him 
briefly : 

The  relation  of  the  horse  to  the  Methodist  itinerancy 
has  always  been  very  intimate,  and  about  this  time  scarce 
a  Conference  session  passed  without  some  reference  or 
action  that  showed  how  important  a  factor  he  was  in  our 
economy.  If  a  preacher's  horse  had  strayed  away,  it  was 
considered  the  best  time  and  place  to  advertise  him  with  a 
view  to  his  recovery.  If  he  was  sick,  remedies  by  the 
dozen  were  suggested.  If  he  had  died,  a  collection  was 
at  once  taken,  and  the  brother  who  failed  to  respond  was 
regarded  as  little  less  than  an  outlaw.  The  close  of  the 
Conference,  when  men  who  had  been  on  stations  were 
assigned  to  circuits  and  districts  and  z>ice  versa,  was  the 
signal  for  a  general  horse-trading.  I  well  remember  that 
just  after  adjournment  at  Greenville,  in  1855,  the  street 
in  front  of  a  livery  stable  near  the  center  of  the  town 
for  a  square  or  more  was  lined  with  teams  and  traders. 

56 


DAVID    MORTON 


Preachers  and  ponies,  women  and  wagons,  children  and 
colts  were  to  be  seen  on  all  sides.  There  were  selling  and 
swapping,  and  buying  and  bartering,  and  stripping  and 
saddling.  Cash  and  credit  and  present  and  future  deliv- 
ery fixed  the  terms  of  sale,  and  in  a  little  time  the  adjust- 
ments were  complete.  It  was  the  close  of  my  second  year 
in  the  Conference,  and  to  me  it  was  an  inspiring  scene  to 
witness  how  readily  and  cheerfully  a  Methodist  preacher 
can  adapt  himself  to  changes  in  his  condition  in  order  to 
do  the  Master's  work  and  carry  the  glad  tidings  to  his 
fellow  men. 

At  the  end  of  1856,  very  much  to  his  grief,  Mr. 
Morton  found  himself  in  infirm  health  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  he  was  forced  either  to  locate  or  to  ask  for  a 
supernumerary  relation.  Between  the  two  courses  he 
chose  the  latter.  His  brethren  kindly  consented  to  his 
request  and  allowed  him  to  spend  the  whole  of  the  next 
year  in  his  old  home.  It  may  be  safely  asserted,  how- 
ever, that  he  was  not  idle,  but  that,  up  to  the  full  meas- 
ure of  his  strength  and  opportunity,  he  kept  himself 
usefully  busy  in  every  way.  To  be  unemployed,  ex- 
cept under  the  stress  of  necessity,  was  impossible  with 
him.  Fortunately  for  him,  the  partial  respite  from 
ceaseless  toil  completely  restored  his  bodily  vigor  and 
sent  him  to  Smithland,  the  seat  of  the  Conference  of 
1857,  ready  to  resume  with  a  glad  and  grateful  heart 
the  holy  tasks  which  he  had  temporarily  and  reluctantly 
laid  down.  The  signal  thing  about  the  session,  as  it 
stood  out  forever  afterwards  in  his  memory,  was  the 

57 


DAVID    MORTON 


presence  and  the  preaching  of  Bishop  George  F.  Pierce 
and  Dr.  Jefferson  Hamilton,  both  of  whom  were,  in 
every  sense  of  the  word,  unusual  men.  In  personal 
appearance,  in  port  and  bearing,  in  pulpit  and  platform 
ability,  and  in  unreserv^ed  consecration  to  Christ  and 
his  Church,  they  were  altogether  fit  to  be  matched  with 
the  foremost  men  of  their  time.  Either  of  them  by 
himself  was  enough  to  make  an  occasion  notable,  and 
the  two  together  lent  a  real  glory  to  it.  Mr.  Morton 
went  away  from  the  Conference  with  his  heart  jubilant 
and  dancing  and  never  ceased  to  look  back  to  it  as  one 
of  the  hallowed  seasons  of  his  life.  In  the  same  ad- 
dress to  which  I  have  already  referred  more  than  once 
he  gives  his  matured  and  deliberate  estimate  of  the 
wonderful  and  faithful  ministers  mentioned  here,  an 
estimate  that  is  abundantly  worth  quoting,  not  only 
because  it  may  help  us  to  understand  the  fascination 
of  the  man,  but  also  because  it  reveals  quite  fairly  his 
own  way  of  looking  at  things : 

The  presence  at  the  Conference  at  Smithland  in  1857 
of  Bishop  George  F.  Pierce,  in  the  chair,  and  Dr.  Jeffer- 
son Hamilton,  of  Alabama,  as  Secretary  of  our  Connec- 
tional  Tract  Society,  was  more  talked  of  at  the  time  and 
afterwards  than  any  other  event  of  the  session.  Pierce, 
born  in  Georgia  and  always  a  resident  of  the  cotton 
States,  was  a  typical  Southerner  and  fully  identified  with 
every  interest  of  his  section.  Hamilton  was  a  native  of 
Massachusetts,  who  in  his  early  manhood  came  to  the 

S8 


DAVID    MORTON 


South  and  remained  there  till  at  a  ripe  age  he  was 
gathered  unto  his  fathers.  He  was  second  to  no  man  in 
his  loyalty  to  his  chosen  home  and  all  that  appertained 
thereto.  As  speakers  on  the  floor  of  the  Conference,  they 
were  well-nigh  evenly  matched.  In  platform  service  they 
stood  side  by  side,  so  nearly  peers  that  in  selecting  an 
advocate  for  your  special  cause  you  could  scarce  choose 
between  them.  As  preachers  they  moved  on  lines  so 
nearly  parallel  that  it  was  difficult  to  decide  which  had 
the  advantage  in  all  the  elements  of  great  preaching. 
They  both  spoke  from  the  depths  of  an  inward,  conscious 
acquaintance  with  God;  were  able  expounders  of  his 
word ;  were  masters  of  polished,  lofty  diction ;  were  ac- 
curate, clear,  and  forceful  speakers;  were  natural  and 
cultured  orators,  who  often  soared  to  empyreal  heights  of 
eloquence  that  left  their  hearers  in  doubt  whether  they 
were  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body.  Both  were  in  their 
prime  and  at  their  best  during  this  Conference,  and  until 
the  books  are  opened  at  the  last  day  the  good  accom- 
plished by  their  ministrations  will  not  be  known. 

On  Conference  Sunday,  full  of  holy  joy,  David 
Morton  was  one  of  the  class  who  were  ordained  eld- 
ers. His  novitiate  being  now  entirely  passed,  he  was 
solemnly  invested  with  full  functions  of  the  minis- 
try. This  was  also  an  epochal  event  with  him.  He  was 
quite  as  much  rejoiced  to  feel  upon  his  head  the  con- 
secrating hands  of  Bishop  Pierce  as  he  had  been  two 
years  before  to  feel  those  of  Bishop  Paine.  Though 
without  a  particle  of  respect  for  the  superstitious  doc- 
trine of  tactual  succession  as  held  by  the  Romanists, 

59 


DAVID    MORTON 


Anglo-Catholics,  and  other  high  Church  folks,  he  yet 
recognized  the  propriety  and  beauty  of  the  ceremony 
by  which  he  had  been  set  apart  to  the  work  of  God, 
and  he  was  glad  to  be  in  line  and  touch  with  the  fa- 
thers and  founders  of  Methodism. 

He  had  acquitted  himself  so  well  on  circuits  that  it 
was  thought  proper  to  test  him  on  a  station;  and  he 
was,  therefore,  assigned  to  Bardstown.  That  was  not 
an  easy  post.  It  was  and  is  one  of  the  few  Kentucky 
communities  in  which  Roman  Catholicism  is  the  dom- 
inant faith.  No  Protestant  Church  was  strong  there. 
Methodism  had  rather  a  precarious  footing.  Its  house 
of  worship  was  in  debt,  and  the  general  outlook  was 
far  from  encouraging.  The  truth  is  that  there  are 
few  things  more  depressing  to  an  average  congregation 
than  a  debt  that  has  become  an  old  story.  It  seems  to 
arrest  all  sorts  of  progress,  material  and  spiritual.  Mr. 
Morton  took  in  the  situation  very  early  and  determined 
to  remove  this  obstacle  out  of  his  way.  During  his 
whole  life  as  a  minister  he  was  much  engaged  in  the 
same  sort  of  work.  Some  ministers  made  a  record  for 
getting  their  Churches  into  debt.  He  made  a  great  rec- 
ord for  getting  his  out  of  debt.  As  it  was  impossible  to 
raise  in  Bardstown  all  the  money  that  was  needed  to  re- 
lieve the  situation,  he  mounted  his  horse  and  spent  many 
weeks  canvassing  a  large  part  of  Southern  Kentucky 
for  help.    Wherever  he  went  he  preached  and  laid  his 

60 


DAVID    MORTON 


case  before  the  people  and  with  gratifying  results.  He 
did  not  get  a  large  sum  at  any  one  place,  but  at  evei-y 
place,  whether  he  came  on  Sunday  or  a  week  day,  he 
got  something.  The  aggregate  was  enough  to  be  of 
great  assistance  in  lifting  the  load  off  from  his  Church. 
Thus  early  did  he  begin  to  apply  the  methods  which 
later  proved  so  valuable  in  Church  Extension. 

I  wish  that  I  could  put  my  hand  on  some  word  di- 
rectly from  him  concerning  the  general  outcome  of  his 
work  at  Bardstown,  but  no  such  word  is  in  existence. 
He  was  not  the  man  to  exploit  his  own  labors;  nor 
has  any  one  else,  as  far  as  I  can  discover,  made  a  rec- 
ord of  his  activities  at  that  time,  except  in  the  matter 
of  which  I  have  just  spoken.  But  it  is  certain  that  he 
must  have  acquitted  himself  well ;  for  at  the  end  of  the 
year,  as  will  presently  appear,  he  was  transferred  to  a 
more  important  post. 

When  the  hosts  gathered  at  Hopkinsville  in  1858,  it 
was  to  meet  their  own  Kentucky  Bishop,  Hubbard  H. 
Kavanaugh,  who  now  for  the  first  time  was  to  preside 
over  them.  He  was  well  known  to  them  all  and  loved 
and  honored  by  them  all.  It  was  the  universal  opinion 
among  them  that,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Bishop 
Henry  B.  Bascom,  he  was  the  most  eloquent  preacher 
that  Kentucky  had  ever  produced.  Many  competent 
judges  in  different  parts  of  the  Church  were  inclined  to 
rank  him  even  above  Bascom.    He  liad  been  elected  to 

61 


DAVID    MORTON 


the  episcopacy  at  the  same  time  with  Bishop  Pierce, 
four  years  before.  In  preaching  ability  and  in  a  cer- 
tain noble  simplicity  of  character  the  two  men  were 
much  alike,  but  in  every  other  respect  they  were  differ- 
ent. Pierce  was  as  handsome  as  Apollo;  Kavanaugh 
was  ungraceful  in  form  and  homely  in  face  and  fea- 
tures. Only  when  thoroughly  aroused  did  he  undergo 
that  strange  transformation  in  appearance  which  made 
him  look  like  another  man.  It  was  not  the  good  for- 
tune of  the  writer  to  hear  him  till  the  autumn  of  1870. 
At  that  time  he  was  aging  rapidly,  but  his  preaching 
was  still  like  the  movement  of  an  army  with  banners. 
It  often  reached  and  passed  the  limits  of  the  sublime. 
Especially  in  dealing  with  the  atonement  and  allied 
themes  did  he  exhibit  most  masterly  gifts.  He  had 
thought  through  and  through  all  the  issues  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  controversy  and  could  expound  them  with  ease 
and  power.  At  the  time  of  his  elevation  to  the  episco- 
pacy it  was  not  supposed  that  he  would  ever  shine  as  a 
president  or  as  an  interpreter  and  executive  of  law; 
and,  in  truth,  he  did  occasionally  let  things  go  at  loose 
ends  when  he  was  in  the  chair.  But  it  is  a  rather  re- 
markable fact  that  no  one  of  his  decisions  on  law  points 
was  ever  reversed  by  the  College  of  Bishops.  He  was 
put  to  a  pretty  severe  test  at  this  time  by  an  appeal 
case  involving  an  old  personal  friend  which  was  tried 
by  the  Conference  in  open  session.    His  rulings,  which 

62 


DAVID    MORTON 


were  all  adverse  to  his  old  friend  and  left  him  out  of 
the  Church,  gave  the  Bishop  pain. 

To  David  Morton  the  coming  of  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
was  especially  grateful.  It  brought  up  a  perfect  flood 
of  pleasant  memories.  The  Bishop  was  a  close  friend 
of  his  father  and  had  once  lived  for  one  Winter  in  the 
Morton  home.  That  he  had  left  a  pleasant  and  perma- 
nent impression  on  all  the  children  of  the  household  is 
as  certain  as  anything  can  be.  One  and  all,  they  held 
him  in  their  affections.  Nor  was  he,  on  his  part,  the  sort 
of  a  man  to  forget  the  open-hearted  and  open-handed 
hospitality  of  which  he  had  been  the  recipient.  What- 
ever he  could  do  consistently  with  his  sense  of  propriety 
in  the  way  of  showing  his  gratitude,  he  was  sure  to  do 
it.  While  it  was  utterly  unlike  him  to  exhibit  any  fa- 
voritism in  making  the  appointments,  he  was  no  doubt 
glad  that  he  could  conscientiously  send  Marmaduke 
Morton's  son  to  as  important  a  place  as  Owensboro  and 
thus  give  him  a  real  and  substantial  advancement.  The 
Methodist  Church  at  that  place  has  always  been  strong, 
and  it  is  to  this  day  one  of  the  best  in  the  Conference. 
That  it  put  the  young  preacher  to  his  best  efforts  to  fill 
it  in  a  satisfactory  way,  there  can  be  no  question.  He 
had  already  acquired  the  habit  of  careful  preparation 
for  the  pulpit,  as  is  evident  from  the  full  volumes  of 
manuscript  sermons  that  he  left  behind  him,  many  of 
which  trace  their  beginnings  back  to  a  very  early  period 

63 


DAVID    MORTON 


in  his  career.  While  he  was  not  the  slave  of  his  manu- 
scripts, he  knew  that  nothing  else  clarifies  the  processes 
of  thought  as  much  as  the  use  of  the  pen  and  that, 
moreover,  if  one  is  going  to  preserve  the  products  of 
his  thought  he  must  put  them  on  paper.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  imagine  him  as  lounging  carelessly  through  the 
week  and  then  expecting  God  to  fill  his  mouth  with 
something  worth  saying  on  the  Sabbath  day.  He  took 
into  the  pulpit  with  him  always  the  very  best  he  was 
capable  of  producing,  and  so  felt  perfectly  free  to  ask 
the  divine  blessing  on  it.  Both  the  matter  and  the  form 
of  his  discourses  grew  better  as  the  passing  years 
brought  him  a  richer  furnishing  of  mind  and  a  growing 
facility  of  utterance.  At  the  end  of  1859  he  was  so 
well  established  in  the  esteem  and  good  will  of  his  con- 
gregation that  he  was  returned  for  another  year. 

It  had  already  got  to  be  understood  that  Mr.  Morton 
possessed  unusual  gifts  for  raising  money;  and  so  in 
i860  he  was  detached  from  the  pastorate  and  made 
Agent  for  the  Southern  Kentucky  College,  an  institu- 
tion which  the  Methodists  in  that  part  of  the  State  had 
set  up  at  Bowling  Green  for  the  schooling  of  their 
sons.  This  was  the  beginning  of  those  intelligent  and 
persistent  efforts  in  the  cause  of  Christian  education 
which  occupied  so  many  of  the  best  years  of  his  life. 
At  first  it  looked  as  if  the  enterprise  were  bound  to 
prosper.    The  coming  of  the  Civil  War,  however,  de- 

64 


DAVID    MORTON 


layed  and  defeated  for  a  time  the  plans  of  its  friends 
and  founders.  But  the  history  of  this  enterprise  is  nar- 
rated in  another  chapter. 

In  1861-65  there  were  stirring  times  in  Kentucky. 
The  long-dreaded  war,  which  Henry  Clay  and  other 
statesmen  of  his  political  faith  had  sought  to  avert  by 
preaching  the  duty  of  magnanimous  and  patriotic  for- 
bearance between  the  sections,  had  at  last  broken  in 
full  fury  on  the  land.  Bad  as  it  was  everywhere,  it 
was  worse  in  Kentucky  and  one  or  two  other  of  the 
border  States  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  country. 
Lines  of  division  ran  zigzag  through  families,  neigh- 
borhoods, and  Churches.  Old  friends  bound  together 
by  immemorial  ties  became  bitter  enemies.  Brothers 
arrayed  themselves  against  brothers.  Fathers  took 
up  arms  against  sons.  There  was  hardly  a  large 
family  connection  in  the  State  that  did  not  send  some 
of  its  members  into  the  Federal  army  and  some  into 
the  Confederate  army.  There  were  Clays  and  Crit- 
tendens  and  Marshalls  and  Breckenridges  and  Han- 
sons fighting  under  both  flags.  Those  who  are  not  old 
enough  to  remember  it  all  can  scarcely  imagine  the 
depth  and  bitterness  of  the  passions  that  were  aroused 
as  the  conflict  went  on.  In  the  outset  the  State  tried 
to  adopt  a  policy  of  neutrality,  not  because  she  was 
too  cowardly  to  take  sides,  but  because  by  all  her  tra- 
ditions she  was  drawn  both  ways  and  would  have  been 
5  6s 


DAVID    MORTON 


glad  to  keep  out  of  the  strife.  But  that  proved  impos- 
sible. The  State  was  presently  invaded  by  armies  from 
the  North  and  from  the  South  alike  and  was  compelled 
by  the  march  of  events  to  make  election  between  the  one 
or  the  other.  In  the  outset  there  was  an  overwhelming 
majority  in  favor  of  the  Union,  but  before  the  hostili- 
ties closed  it  is  likely  that  the  bulk  of  sympathy  was 
with  the  Confederacy.  David  Morton  himself  was  like 
thousands  of  others  who  would  have  been  glad  to  main- 
tain the  ancient  compacts,  but  who,  nevertheless,  when 
they  had  to  make  choice,  found  it  impossible  to  go 
against  their  own  section. 

In  illustration  of  what  has  been  said  in  the  foregoing 
paragraphs,  it  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  introduce 
here,  without  apology  of  any  sort,  Mr.  Morton's  own 
account  of  what  happened  at  the  successive  Confer- 
ences that  met  during  the  war.  He  conveys  a  better 
impression  of  the  times  and  circumstances  than  any 
second-hand  report  could  possibly  furnish.  The  reader 
will  not  fail  to  see  an  occasional  gleam  of  humor  as  he 
proceeds  with  the  narrative.  In  the  interest  of  history 
it  is  a  pity  that  the  proceedings  of  the  Southern  half  of 
the  Conference  of  1861  could  not  have  been  published 
in  full.  It  would  surely  be  interesting  reading.  But 
here  is  what  is  actually  put  down : 

The  geographical  position  of  our  Conference  during  the 
Civil  War  made  it  the  theater  of  military  operations  from 

66 


DAVID    MORTON 


1861  to  1865.  No  great  battle  was  fought  on  our  soil,  but 
by  the  marching  and  countermarching  of  armies  and  by 
raids  much  loss  of  property  was  entailed  upon  the  people, 
and  no  little  bitterness  of  feeling  was  engendered.  There 
was  not  much  diversity  of  opinion  in  our  Church,  and  only 
a  few  of  our  preachers  differed  from  their  brethren  on  the 
great  issues  involved;  and  yet  there  was  enough  of  fric- 
tion to  embarrass  the  appointing  power  in  its  efforts  to 
suit  men  to  places  so  that  collisions  would  be  avoided  and 
support  insured.  These  ends,  however,  under  the  good 
hand  of  our  God  upon  us,  were  well-nigh  attained. 

In  September,  1861,  the  members  of  the  Conference 
residing  in  the  Southern  and  Western  sections  of  the 
State  found  themselves  cut  off  from  the  possibility  of 
attending  the  regular  session  which  was  to  meet  early 
in  October  in  Louisville  by  the  presence  within  our  bor- 
ders of  two  armies.  A  large  body  of  Confederates,  under 
command  of  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  was  in  camp 
at  Bowling  Green;  and  a  still  larger  body  of  Federals, 
commanded  by  General  Buell,  was  near  Munfordville. 
They  were  daily  expected  to  join  battle.  Passes  were 
applied  for  by  the  preachers  and  denied,  and  suspicion 
attached  to  every  man  who  spoke  of  going  to  Confer- 
ence. A  consultation  was  held  by  a  few  preachers  who 
happened  to  be  in  Russellville ;  and  it  was  resolved  that  a 
paper  be  sent  to  the  Conference  at  Louisville  asking  it  to 
transact  so  much  of  the  business  as  referred  to  the  terri- 
tory within  the  Federal  lines  as  then  existing  and  then 
adjourn  to  meet  at  Bethlehem,  Logan  County,  Kentucky, 
on  a  specific  day  not  distant,  at  which  time  and  place  it  was 
proposed  to  have  the  preachers  within  the  Confederate 
lines  convene  and  conclude  the  Conference  by  transacting 
so  much  of  its  business  as  related  to  the  territorv  occu- 

67 


DAVID    MORTON 


pied  by  them.  This  paper  reached  die  brethren  in  Louis- 
ville; but  the  request  was  denied,  and  the  entire  business 
of  the  Conference  was  done  by  them.  Notwithstanding 
this,  twenty-three  preachers  met  at  Bethlehem  on  the  ap- 
pointed day  and  proceeded  to  organize  and  conduct  a 
Conference  in  due  and  ancient  form. 

Bishop  Soule  was  sent  for  and  came  and  took  the 
chair.  The  long-time  Secretary,  Brother  Dewitt,  was 
present  with  the  Journal  and,  when  elected,  served  and 
recorded  the  minutes  in  the  regular  book.  Business  went 
briskly  on  for  several  days,  and  some  things  not  strictly 
conservative  were  done.  For  instance,  three  delegates  to 
the  General  Conference  were  elected,  it  being  claimed 
that  we  were  entitled  to  that  number  out  of  the  five  for 
the  whole  Conference.  At  this  juncture  a  brother  from 
Louisville,  L.  P.  Crenshaw,  who  had  eluded  both  armies, 
arrived ;  and  when  he  had  explained  at  length  the  action 
of  the  brethren  at  Louisville,  better  feeling  prevailed,  and 
the  more  radical  features  of  our  action  were  rescinded. 
By  the  election,  though,  they  resolved  to  stand ;  and  had 
the  General  Conference  of  1862  met,  for  once  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  two  sets  of  delegates  would  have 
claimed  seats. 

At  Owensboro  in  1862  the  war  touched  us  again  in  the 
form  of  a  demand  from  the  Federal  commander  of  the 
post  that  we  should  by  resolution  declare  our  devotion  to 
the  Union  of  the  States.  This  wasViet  by  a  reaffirmation 
of  our  belief  in  the  whole  Twenty-Five  Articles,  including 
the  Twenty-Third,  that  required  loyalty  to  the  powers 
that  be. 

These  same  authorities  also  insisted  that  we  should  ex- 
pel two  of  the  preachers  who  were  charged  with  taking 
up  arms  against  the  government,  but  whose  friends  al- 

68 


KNOW     MA      \U  \ 


//«    a/4., 


>i  <»  <  <  «  J  -W  t 


•^     i     <  -      .  .    I     I  <    <(  V     V  <    ^ 


/I    -     ''it  i  tK.K^' 


K 


\ 


^ 


SMfiii^HQpi&iiiVBpi^ifiiilMpfii 


^nob  all  ®en  fegt^cse  ||restBfs, 

ow!  f/  the  Sukap*  of  tie  Jffftitlirt  jBf  (««f»I  Cttttl,  S«Bt|,  iKkfcr  Iht  pntltsiim  of  Almighty 
Ocxi,  and  ifitA  a  tinfftc  -tgt  to  *t»  <j*»y,  Sy  j%«  i^potiUon  of  tag  hanit  and  frayen,  {Ub>g 
attiitei  hgiM  EldrrtprtttiiQ  havt  (kit  day  at  epii        ^^  ^  (X/^lf^^t—-  f  'l',,,. 

<Ct«t^,  J5«BiV  oxtanwib  in  the  jtuigmmt of  Uu.       .-1.  />"■  (,„\,^'^' 'I'-'t^^.i,^ 
Ctii^crenct.,  it  vtll  qxialiJifH  for  that  KOrk;  and  h^,it  hfrthj^  rtcommenUd,  to  elUffimf  it  maif 
concern,  at  a  pro}§r  pfnm.  lb  wlmmitter  tKe  fSaeriti^fUt  and  Ordtnanca,  mi  to  fetd  ffu  /<xA 
of  CkriH,  to  long  lu  hit  tjnfit  andpraetite  ten,  «IK•^  <u  become  ike  Ootpd  ^  CKnai,  oM  h«  «>». 
iinatik  to  hddftut  to  tkc  tarn  <f  nuati  «ordi,  accoitling  to  tit  eetaHuied  d/yirintj  cf  tht  Getjpet. 

SS  <«tl«?  ffitunif,  I-haoe  htrttmia  *d  wy  Hemd  end  teal,  ihit  //  <*^ 
•iagef    4^  |»  7^"'"2i-*-'%- .       inlSe !>*<>>■  %<'o»rJ:^ord one  fb><uanieigit}mndrtaai>i 


David  Morton's  Credentials  as  a  Minister 
In  a  letter  acompanying  his  will,  David  Morton  closed  with  these  words: 
"Let  the   children   never  forget  that   I  regard   it  my  highest  honor  that 
from  my  twentieth  year  to  this  date  I  have  been  a  Methodist  Preacher  in 
good   standing." 


DAVID    MORTON 


leged  that  they  were  only  serving  as  chaplains  in  the 
Confederate  army.  On  the  score  that  we  could  not  try 
a  man  in  his  absence  without  notice,  both  cases  were  de- 
ferred ;  and  after  the  war  both  men,  Joseph  S.  Scobee 
and  Thomas  J.  Moore,  were  regularly  tried  and  acquitted. 

One  of  our  preachers,  who  was  a  chaplain  in  the  Union 
army,  made  himself  conspicuous  by  inducing  the  Federal 
commander  at  Glasgow  in  1863  to  issue  an  order  for  the 
arrest  of  several  of  his  brethren  on  the  charge  of  "general 
disloyalty"  and  also  another  order  requiring  the  entire 
Conference  to  subscribe  to  the  oath  of  allegiance  then  in 
general  use.  We  were  wholly  unaware  of  any  trouble 
until  it  was  suddenly  discovered  that  the  Church  in  which 
the  Conference  was  assembled  was  surrounded  by  a  file 
of  soldiers ;  and  the  provost  marshal,  accompanied  by 
several  aides,  marched  in  and  planted  the  United  States 
flag  just  in  front  of  the  seat  occupied  by  the  Rev.  John 
H.  Linn,  D.D.,  President  of  the  Conference.  The  mar- 
shal began  to  read  in  a  tremulous  voice  the  order  and, 
when  he  had  finished,  inquired  for  the  brethren  against 
whom  the  charge  of  disloyalty  had  been  lodged. 

Each  arose  in  his  place  and  expressed  a  willingness  to 
be  tested  by  any  required  standard.  Each,  according  to 
Conference  usage,  was  vouched  for  by  his  presiding  eld- 
er; and  though  it  was  known  to  some  of  us  who  were 
better  informed  than  the  marshal  that  this  indorsement 
came  from  men  as  little  loyal  as  the  accused,  the  latter 
were  not  troubled  further. 

As  to  the  oath  of  allegiance,  the  impression  got  abroad 
in  the  room  that  it  was  only  expected  that  we  should  sa- 
lute the  flag ;  and  Dr.  Charles  B.  Parsons,  a  strong  Union 
man  and  a  member  of  the  Loyal  League,  seized  the  flag 
and,  holding  it  aloft,  addressed  to  it  in  the  highly  dramat- 

69 


DAVID    MORTON 


ic  style  of  which  he  was  so  capable  an  apostrophe  which 
has  seldom  been  equaled  among  the  many  elicited  by  the 
Star- Spangled  Banner.  The  flag  then  passed  from  preach- 
er to  preacher,  many  of  whom  received  it  with  less  enthu- 
siasm than  Dr.  Parsons,  and  found  its  way  last  into  the 
hands  of  Dr.  Linn,  the  President  of  the  Conference,  who 
spoke  in  beautiful  terms  of  the  protection  it  had  afforded 
to  our  missionaries  as  they  sailed  over  the  seas  and  in 
foreign  lands  preaching  the  glad  tidings  to  those  who  sit 
in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death  and  closed  by  return- 
ing it  to  the  provost  marshal,  adding  with  inimitable  grace 
as  he  did  so :  *'Is  there  anything  else  we  can  do  for  you, 
sir?"  The  officer  answered  promptly,  "No,  sir,"  and 
was  about  to  leave  the  house  when  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Brush, 
an  earnest  friend  of  the  Union,  asked  him  to  remain  for 
a  moment.  Mr.  Brush  then  stated  that  the  ranking  offi- 
cer at  the  post  had  assured  him  that  the  Conference  should 
not  be  disturbed,  but  that  in  his  absence  this  subaltern 
had  interfered  and  brought  about  this  tumult.  Then 
with  genuine  courage  and  consummate  tact  he  adminis- 
tered a  severe  rebuke  to  him  for  annoying  a  religious 
body  which  vvas  engaged  in  the  transaction  of  legitimate 
business  and  had  not  in  any  way  meddled  with  other 
matters.  The  marshal  immediately  retired  with  an  air 
that  suggested  that  he  had  not  gotten  what  he  had  ex- 
pected. 

The  following  year,  when  the  Conference  was  in  ses- 
sion at  Henderson,  a  small  body  of  Confederate  cavalry, 
who  were  in  camp  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  about  a 
mile  from  the  Ohio  River,  made  several  trips  to  the  city, 
but  did  not  molest  the  Conference  or  any  of  the  preachers. 
While  they  were  still  there  a  few  Federal  gunboats  made 
their  appearance  In  the  river  and  for  nearly  a  whole  day 

70 


DAVID    MORTON 


shelled  the  Confederate  camp,  firing,  however,  so  as  not 
to  hurt  the  city  or  harm  the  people.  The  business  of  the 
Conference  progressed  very  quietly  in  the  main ;  but,  de- 
spite ourselves,  when  w^e  heard  those  ugly  missiles  whiz- 
zing just  above  the  church  in  which  we  were  met,  we 
could  not  help  being  startled  by  sensations  not  altogether 
agreeable. 

Further,  a  number  of  men  who  participated  in  the  no- 
table meetings  at  Bethlehem  three  years  before  were  in 
the  Conference  room  at  this  very  time,  and  the  minutes  of 
this  meeting  were  there  too.  Just  what  might  be  the  effect 
if  they  were  called  for,  we  did  not  know ;  and  so,  after  a 
hurried  consultation  by  those  most  interested,  it  was 
deemed  judicious  to  eliminate  from  the  Secretary's  Jour- 
nal the  entire  proceedings  of  the  Bethlehem  Conference. 
Ever  since,  when  this  record  has  been  inquired  after,  the 
answer  has  been :  "Non  est  inventus." 

At  Russellville  in  1865  the  war  was  over,  the  preachers 
were  all  at  home  again,  Bishop  Kavanaugh  in  amiable 
mood  was  in  the  chair,  and  good  fellowship  prevailed 
among  all  the  brethren  and  in  all  our  borders.  Resolu- 
tions affirming  our  loyalty  to  the  Church,  South,  and  our 
purpose  to  cling  to  its  fortunes  in  every  emergency — 
written  by  Dr.  A.  H.  Redford  and  supported  by  him  in 
a  ringing  speech — v/ere  adopted  by  a  vote  almost  unani- 
mous. This  action  served  as  a  keynote  to  the  whole 
connection  and  became  the  rallying  cry  that  helped  to 
marshal  our  people  for  such  a  victory  as  has  not  been 
equaled  by  any  Church  in  modern  times. 

In  the  fall  of  1861,  and  again  in  1862,  Mr.  Morton 
was  appointed  to  Elkton  Circuit,  in  the  Southwestern 
part  of  the  State.     With  most  of  the  people  in  his 

71 


DAVID    MORTON 


charge  he  became  exceedingly  popular  and  remained  so 
till  the  end  of  his  life.  The  fact  that  he  was  known 
to  be  at  heart  a  sympathizer  with  the  South  had  the 
general  effect  of  increasing  rather  than  diminishing  his 
influence  in  the  community.  While  he  did  not  put 
forth  any  effort  to  dissemble  or  to  conceal  his  real 
convictions,  he  was  yet  too  judicious  a  man  and  had 
too  high  a  regard  for  his  ofiice  to  give  needless  offense 
to  those  of  his  flock  who  differed  from  him,  and  so  he 
was  held  in  general  esteem  by  nearly  everybody.  But 
there  were  some  extremists  who  resented  the  fact  that 
he  dared  to  differ  from  them,  even  though  he  com- 
mitted no  overt  act  against  the  general  government. 
One  of  these,  no  less  a  personage  than  the  Hon.  Benja- 
min H.  Bristow,  who,  partisanship  aside,  was  a  high- 
minded  and  worthy  man  and  subsequently  became  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  in  the  administration  of  General 
Grant,  procured  his  arrest  by  the  Federal  authorities  on 
the  mere  general  suspicion  of  disloyalty.  Save  for  the 
intervention  of  other  gentlemen  who  were  also  Union- 
ists, but  did  not  allow  themselves  to  be  controlled  by 
merely  political  prejudices,  and  who  knew  that  Mr. 
Morton  had  done  nothing  worthy  of  such  treatment,  he 
might  have  been  subjected  to  a  long  imprisonment.  As 
matters  turned  out,  he  was  soon  released  and  allowed 
to  resume  his  work.  Mr.  Morton  found  himself  cher- 
ishing a  bitter  resentment  against  this  gentleman  for 

72. 


DAVID    MORTON 


what  he  conceived  to  be  a  gross  injustice.     Dr.  Gross 
xMexander  tells  how  the  incident  finally  turned  out : 

But  when  he  saw  how  this  evil  passion  destroyed  his 
peace  with  God  and  rendered  him  unfit  for  preaching,  he 
determined  to  get  rid  of  it.  Starting  out  on  the  round  of 
his  circuit,  he  turned  aside  from  the  public  road,  dis- 
mounted, hitched  his  horse,  got  down  on  his  knees  in  a 
corner  of  a  fence,  and  continued  there  in  prayer  to  God 
till  the  feeling  of  enmity  was  expelled  and  the  love  of 
God  and  of  his  persecutor  was  restored.  This  experience 
was  in  some  respects  an  epitome  of  the  man.  His  natural 
feelings  were  strong;  his  desire  for  peace  with  God  and 
a  conscience  void  of  offense  was  stronger.  These  he 
would  preserve  and  maintain  at  any  cost. 

As  late  as  1896,  however,  I  niet  him  in  the  height 
of  the  Presidential  canvass  of  that  year  and  had  a  con- 
versation with  him  about  his  preference  among  the 
candidates.  With  a  funny  twinkle  in  his  eye  he  said 
to  me :  "Well,  I  cannot  vote  for  Mr.  Bryan,  with  his 
scheme  for  making  fifty  cents  of  silver  worth  a  dollar; 
and  I  cannot  vote  for  Mr.  McKinley,  with  his  advo- 
cacy of  a  medieval  tariff  system;  and  I  will  not  vote 
for  old  Palmer,  because  he  issued  the  order  for  my 
arrest  and  imprisonment  during  the  war."  Just  how 
he  did  vote,  he  never  told  me ;  but  it  is  among  the  pos- 
sibilities that  he  either  went  a-fishing  (for  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  Church  Extension  Loan  Fund)  or  else  cast 
a  ballot  for  the  nominee  of  the  National  Prohibitionists. 

73 


DAVID    MORTON 


It  is  within  my  knowledge  that  he  became  and  contin- 
ued for  many  years  the  ardent  friend  of  the  Bristow 
family. 

Amusing  experiences  came  to  many  of  Mr.  Morton's 
colleagues  as  the  war  went  on.  There  was  no  minister 
in  Kentucky  of  any  Church  that  was  more  highly  es- 
teemed than  Dr.  George  S.  Savage.  His  face  was  a 
blessing,  and  his  presence  in  any  circle  was  as  if  the 
Master  had  revealed  himself.  He  was  a  strong  but 
not  a  bitter  Union  man.  Some  years  ago  the  Louis- 
ville Courier- Journal  reproduced  the  following  story 
concerning  him,  giving  Mr.  Morton  as  authority : 

Just  after  the  battle  of  Perry  villa,  in  October,  1862, 
Dr.  Savage  was  at  one  of  his  appointments  to  baptize 
some  children.  There  was  a  large  crowd,  and  a  sturdy 
Southern  matron  brought  her  four  children  to  the  altar. 
"Name  this  child,"  said  the  Union  preacher,  laying  his 
hand  on  the  boy's  head.  "Simon  Bolivar  Buckner,"  was 
the  reply,  which  caused  a  smile  to  come  over  the  congre- 
gation; but  the  brave  pr-eacher  went  on  with  his  duty. 
"Name  this  child,"  taking  the  next  in  order.  "Pierre 
Gustave  Toutant  Beauregard,"  and  the  smile  grew  into 
a  snicker,  while  Dr.  Savage  became  red  in  the  face.  He 
baptized  the  young  namesake  of  the  great  engineer-soldier 
and  went  on  with  the  ceremony.  "Name  this  one,"  he 
gasped,  reaching  out  for  the  third.  "Albert  Sidney  John- 
ston," came  the  answer.  The  smile  became  audible  and 
the  preacher  apoplectic.  Heaving  a  sigh  of  relief,  he  took 
the  fourth  child,  a  little  girl,  whose  gender  he  fondly 
supposed  would  preclude  a  continuation  of  heroic  repro- 

74 


The  First  Family  Group 

David  Morton,   Mrs.   David  Morton  and   daughter  Mary  Emma. 
From  an  old  daguerreotype  made  in  1856  at  Louisville,  Kentucky. 


DAVID    MORTON 


duction,  and  said:  "Name  this  child."  "Mary  Stonewall 
Jackson  Lee,"  came  a  response  that  set  the  congregation 
in  a  roar,  while  the  Union  parson  thought  that  he  had 
held  in  his  arms  the  whole  Southern  Confederacy. 

It  is  known  that  the  Mortons,  while  never  in  want, 
found  themselves  at  this  time  in  close  quarters  finan- 
cially. The  cost  of  living  was  high,  but  the  salaries  of 
the  preachers  had  not  been  advanced  correspondingly. 
With  three  children  of  her  own  and  an  orphan  child 
of  her  brother,  Mrs.  Morton  found  it  a  little  difficult 
to  make  ends  meet  out  of  the  resources  which  her  hus- 
band was  able  to  put  at  her  disposal.  But,  instead  of 
wdiining  over  the  situation,  she  resolutely  made  up  her 
mind  to  help  in  every  way ;  and,  accordingly,  she  took 
a  large  class  of  music  pupils,  who  were  able  to  pay  a 
reasonable  rate  for  the  instruction  which  she  gave 
them,  and  so  supplemented  what  would  otherwise  have 
been  the  narrow  income  of  the  parsonage.  In  the 
meantime  she  also  kept  on  good  terms  with  everybody 
and  so  helped  to  steer  her  husband's  bark  through  some 
rather  rough  waters. 

On  another  page  attention  has  been  called  to  the 
fact  that  at  the  Conference  of  1863,  which  met  in  the 
town  of  Glasgow,  Dr.  John  H.  Linn,  one  of  the  famous 
ministers  of  the  day,  was  in  the  chair.  This  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  all  the  bishops  of  the  Church  except 
Bishop  Kavanaugh  were  inside  the  Confederate  lines 

75 


DAVID    MORTON 


and  in  no  wise  minded  to  take  the  risk  of  venturing  into 
Kentucky.  Bishop  Kavanaugh  was  in  CaHfornia,  hav- 
ing been  called  thither  by  leading  preachers  and  lay- 
men in  the  hope  that  he  might  be  able  to  hearten  our 
people  in  that  far-off  region  of  the  Church.  Nobody 
fitter  than  Dr.  Linn  could  have  been  selected  to  conduct 
the  Conference  business  and  make  the  appointments. 
He  possessed  all  the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities 
needed  for  the  efficient  discharge  of  such  duties  and, 
besides,  was  implicitly  trusted  and  honored  by  his 
brethren.  From  his  hands  Mr.  Morton,  having  com- 
pleted the  full  term  of  two  years  at  Elkton,  received  an 
appointment  to  Hopkinsville  Circuit.  To  come  and  go 
on  this  new  charge  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  have  a 
passport  from  the  Federal  commandant  at  Hopkins- 
ville, and  to  get  this  passport  he  had  to  make  oath  that 
he  would  in  no  wise  hold  communication  with,  or  give 
aid  and  comfort  to,  the  authorities  of  the  Confederate 
States.  That  he  greatly  relished  such  proceedings  is 
by  no  means  likely.  But  he  fully  realized  that  Provi- 
dence had  compassed  him  about  with  circumstances 
which  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  submit  or  else  stop 
his  ministry;  and  having  once  assumed  the  obligations 
of  an  oath,  he  felt  bound  in  conscience  and  honor  to 
keep  it.  If  anything  unusual  happened  to  him  during 
the  year,  it  is  nowhere  recorded.  The  public  mind  was 
so  largely  occupied  by  the  great  events  of  the  war  that 

76 


DAVID    MORTON 


there  was  not  much  chance  for  him  to  do  more  than 
follow  the  beaten  round  of  duty.  That  he  did  this 
most  faithfully,  there  is  every  reason  for  believing. 
Nor  was  it  a  small  matter  that,  when  everybody  was 
excited  and  disturbed  by  the  daily  tidings  of  war  and 
bloodshed,  he  went  round  his  circuit  preaching  the 
gospel  of  peace  and  good  will  and  discharging,  all  and 
singular,  the  functions  of  a  Christian  minister.  To 
speak  soberly,  the  very  things  that  seemed  to  be  a 
hindrance  to  the  success  of  Christ's  cause  were  an  ad- 
ditional reason  for  unswerving  faithfulness  u|)on  the 
part  of  all  who  professed  allegiance  to  Him. 

77 


CHAPTER  V. 

Taking  a  Turn  with  the  Schools. 

/^NE  of  the  most  remarkable  things  about  Method- 
^-^  ist  preachers  is  their  great  versatihty,  tlie  ease 
with  which  they  can  turn  from  one  task  to  another. 
The  Church  from  the  beginning  has  presumed  that  they 
could  do  almost  any  sort  of  work  that  it  needed  to  have 
done,  and  the  issue  in  most  cases  has  justified  this  expec- 
tation. It  was  by  no  means,  therefore,  an  unprecedent- 
ed thing  when,  in  the  summer  of  1864,  Mr.  Morton  was 
elected  by  the  trustees  President-  of  the  Russellville 
x\cademy  for  Girls.  True,  he  was  not  a  technical 
scholar,  and  he  never  became  one ;  but,  as  set  out  in  an 
opening  chapter  of  this  book,  he  had  received  when  a 
boy  an  excellent  academic  training.  In  addition  to 
that,  he  had  always  maintained  careful  habits  of  study 
and  had  accumulated  a  large  stock  of  useful  informa- 
tion. Few  men  surpassed  him  in  the  matter  of  general 
intelligence.  His  business  capacity,  moreover,  was  of 
the  best,  and  that  was  one  of  the  reasons  why  he  was 
chosen.  The  trustees  knew  him  well  enough  to  be  cer- 
tain that  if  anybody  could  conduct  the  school  without 
involving  it  in  debt  he  could  do  so.  In  her  girlhood 
days  his  wife  had  been  a  successful  teacher  and  was 

78 


\ 


DAVID    MORTON 


known  to  have  a  good  gift  for  dealing  with  girls  and 
young  women.  That  fact,  I  am  sure,  had  something 
to  do  with  determining  the  election. 

The  school  itself  had  quite  a  history  behind  it.  In 
one  form  or  other  it  had  been  in  existence  for  nearly 
forty  years  and  always  more  or  less  under  the  patron- 
age and  control  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Though  al- 
most entirely  lacking  the  equipment  which  is  nowadays 
considered  necessary  for  an  institution  of  learning,  it 
had,  nevertheless,  accomplished  a  vast  amount  of  good. 
The  State  had  at  that  time  undertaken  no  systematic 
and  organized  plan  for  the  education  of  all  its  chil- 
dren, thousands  of  whom  Vv'ould  have  grown  up  in 
ignorance  but  for  the  training  furnished  in  the  village 
academies  set  up  by  private  individuals  or  by  the  dif- 
ferent Churches.  In  1856  the  Rev.  James  E.  Carnes, 
a  notable  scholar  and  preacher,  closed  up  a  very  suc- 
cessful pastorate  in  Russellville.  Several  young  men 
who  greatly  admired  him  and  wished  to  retain  him  in 
the  community  bought  what  was  known  as  the  Old 
Academy,  forming  for  this  purpose  a  joint  stock  com- 
pany, with  shares  of  one  hundred  dollars  each,  and 
turned  it  over  to  him  to  be  used  by  him  at  his  discre- 
tion. The  total  cost  of  it  was  about  thirty-five  hun- 
dred dollars.  In  this  building  Mr.  Carnes  conducted 
a  very  prosperous  school  till  he  was  elected  by  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of   1858  to  be  editor  of  the  Texa^ 

79 


DAVID    MORTON 


Christian  Advocate.  It  so  happened  at  that  time  that 
Dr.  Edward  Stevenson,  who  had  been  General  Book 
Agent  at  Nashville,  declined  to  accept  the  office  for  an- 
other term  and  removed  to  Russellville,  where  he  had 
been  twice  a  pastor  and  always  a  prime  favorite.  At 
the  earnest  request  of  the  stockholders  he  consented  to 
succeed  Mr.  Carnes  on  the  condition  that  the  property 
should  be  purchased  and  directly  owned  by  the  Church. 
With  characteristic  energy  he  not  merely  raised  money 
enough  to  effect  this  transfer,  but  also  a  surplus  of  sev- 
eral thousand  dollars  with  which  to  improve  the  build- 
ings and  adorn  the  grounds.  In  spite  of  the  agitations 
of  the  war,  he  had  a  large  patronage  and  great  success 
in  every  way.  But  in  the  Spring  of  1864  his  health 
broke  down  completely,  and  on  June  6,  following,  his 
long  and  useful  life  came  to  an  end. 

It  was  somewhat  doubtful  whether  a  young  man 
entirely  untried  as  a  teacher  could  step  into  the  breach 
and  meet  its  responsibilities.  But  the  result  entirely 
vindicated  the  wisdom  of  the  board  in  choosing  Mr. 
Morton,  who  began  his  work  in  the  following  Septem- 
ber and  for  four  years  maintained  and  enlarged  the 
patronage  and  gave  complete  satisfaction  to  all  con- 
cerned. Within  a  year  or  two  it  became  evident  that 
large  additions  would  be  needed  to  the  grounds  and 
buildings  if  it  v^ere  to  keep  the  lead  it  had  secured,  and 
adjacent    grounds    were    accordingly    purchased    and 


80 


DAVID    MORTON 


paid  for.  The  plan  first  adopted  was  simply  to  over- 
haul the  old  buildings;  but  a  good  many  people  de- 
clined to  give  anything  for  that  purpose,  expressing  at 
the  same  time  a  v^illingness  to  help  if  a  new  and  wor- 
thy structure  were  undertaken.  The  general  talk  was 
that  ten  thousand  dollars  would  be  required,  all  told, 
for  the  execution  of  the  contemplated  scheme,  which  at 
that  time  was  a  much  more  considerable  sum  than  it 
would  be  now.  But  even  the  ten  thousand  dollars  was 
not  forthcoming. 

A  weaker  man  would  have  dropped  the  whole  thing 
or  left  it  to  be  worked  out  by  somebody  else.  But  that 
was  not  David  Morton's  way.  He  quietly  said:  "I 
have  generally  succeeded  with  what  I  have  undertalc- 
en."  Instead  of  narrowing  his  plans  to  suit  his  re- 
sources, he  enlarged  them  and  determined  somehow  or 
other  to  get  the  money  for  which  they  called.  It  does 
not  seem  that  he  took  anybody  into  his  confidence  till  he 
had  thought  the  whole  situation  through  and  reached 
his  conclusions  as  to  what  ought  to  be  done.  Let  him 
tell  the  story : 

In  the  winter  of  1867,  just  after  I  had  retired  one 
night,  I  was  seized  with  the  conviction  that  it  would  be 
easier  to  raise  $30,000  than  $10,000,  and  it  so  fastened 
itself  upon  my  mind  that  I  slept  no  more  during  the  night ; 
and  after  revolving  the  project  in  my  mind,  I  arose  from 
bed  and  wrote  the  present  charter  of  Logan  Female  Col- 
6  81 


DAVID    MORTON 


lege.  About  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  I  awoke  my  wife 
and  told  her  that  I  was  going  to  Frankfort  on  business 
and,  putting  the  charter  in  my  pocket,  took  the  train  be- 
fore daylight,  and  the  paper  had  been  passed  by  the  leg- 
islature then  in  session  and  became  a  law  within  a  few 
days  after  it  was  written  and  before  anybody  at  Russell- 
ville  knew  anything  of  my  purpose.  As  soon  as  a  certified 
copy  of  the  charter  could  be  obtained  I  called  the  corpo- 
rators together  and  submitted  it  to  them.  They  agreed 
to  accept  the  charter,  and  we  began  at  once  devising 
plans  to  raise  the  money.  I  remember  that  one  of  the 
brethren  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  $5,000  could  not  be 
raised  in  the  entire  Conference  for  such  a  purpose,  and 
I  said  to  him  that  if  I  did  not  get  $10,000  in  the  town  I 
would  never  go  beyond  its  corporate  limits  to  ask  for  a 
dollar  elsewhere.  A  meeting  was  held  at  the  church,  and 
$5,000  was  subscribed  on  the  first  evening;  and  within  a 
month  we  had  $10,000  down  on  paper,  and  to  it  additions 
have  been  made  every  year  since. 

In  1868  he  resigned  the  presidency  of  the  college 
and  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  R.  H.  Rivers,  D.D.,  one  of 
the  famous  teachers  of  the  olden  days.  But  his  resig- 
nation did  not  mean  any  cessation  of  interest  in  the 
enterprise.  On  the  contrary,  he  accepted  the  harder 
task  of  an  agency  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the 
money  with  which  to  complete  it  and  held  the  position 
for  the  next  ten  years,  during  a  large  part  of  which 
time,  however,  he  was  also  a  presiding  elder  or  else 
had  his  hands  full  of  some  other  work  for  the  Church. 
That  the  raising  of  money  was  no  easy  job  scarcely 

82 


S?o 


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a> 


(D 


<u 


fe     -T-H-" 


<u;s 


'^r-'-W 


'^  C  o  >  a3+j  £  oi 

E-t  n^J  |>  z;  S  vi  o 


DAVID    MORTON 


needs  to  be  said.  The  people  to  whom  he  went  had 
not  been  educated  to  giving  largely  for  that  or  any 
other  purpose  and  often  either  turned  him  off  without 
making  any  subscription  or  else  satisfied  their  con- 
sciences with  small  contributions.  One  gentleman — 
it  was  Hugh  Barclay — wrote  his  checks,  first  and  last, 
for  three  thousand  dollars  and  another  for  five  hun- 
dred dollars.  But  nobody  else  did  nearly  so  well.  It 
was  the  day  of  small  things.  What  made  matters 
worse  was  that  the  great  financial  panic  of  1873  broke 
upon  the  land  and  frightened  everybody  into  narrow 
economy.  In  spite  of  all  these  discouragements,  which 
were  enough  to  depress  and  dishearten  even  a  cour- 
ageous man,  Mr.  Morton  held  on  till  he  had  raised  the 
last  cent  of  thirty-five  thousand  dollars  and  was  able  to 
rejoice  in  the  complete  and  final  extinction  of  the  debt. 
The  school  has  since  prospered  greatly  under  a  succes- 
sion of  able  and  conscientious  presidents  and  has  been 
an  immense  help  to  the  growth  and  stability  of  Meth- 
odism in  that  part  of  the  State.  While  credit  is  due 
to  many  persons,  the  chief  praise  belongs  to  David 
Morton. 

For  twenty-eight  years  he  was  connected  with  the 
school  in  the  capacity  of  president,  agent,  and  director. 
The  first  dollar  was  collected  by  him,  and  he  saw  the 
last  dime  of  its  indebtedness  paid  before  he  resigned. 
In  an  article  that  appeared  in  the  Christian  Advocate, 

83 


DAVID    MORTON 


Dr.  Gross  Alexander  says  this  concerning  Mr.  Mor- 
ton's connection  with  Logan  Female  College :  "To  him 
more  than  to  any  other  man,  more  than  to  all  other 
men,  the  college  to-day  owes  its  existence  and  pros- 
perity." That  his  brethren  of  the  Louisville  Confer- 
ence appreciated  Mr.  Morton's  labors  for  Logan  Fe- 
male College  is  attested  by  the  following  extract  from 
his  memoir  published  in  the  Minutes : 

The  conception  of  Logan  Female  College  so  early  in 
his  life  was  a  prophecy  of  the  young  man's  future.  It 
was  a  noble  conception,  wisely  planned,  carefuly  executed, 
and  became  a  grand  realization  under  his  efficient  man- 
agement. He  took  every  precaution  against  failure.  He 
first  found  a  judicious  location.  He  surrounded  himself 
with  a  board  of  directors  of  wise  business  men.  He  trav- 
eled all  over  the  Conference  and  enlisted  the  active  sym- 
pathy of  his  brethren  in  the  ministry  and  of  hundreds  of 
loyal  laymen.  He  worked  persistently  through  weary 
years  until  success  crowned  his  labors.  Then,  with  the 
triumphant  long-meter  doxology  on  his  lips  and  in  his 
heart,  he  laid  down  his  trust.  That  was  a  happy  day  for 
him.  Logan  Female  College  is  a  nobler  monument  to 
David  Morton  in  his  native  town  than  the  sculptor  could 
chisel  from  the  marble  or  mold  in  bronze. 

We  have  seen  the  work  done  by  Mr.  Morton  in  the 
founding  of  Logan  Female  College.  His  labors  were 
not  confiried  to  the  establishment  of  schools  for  young 
women.  He  was  equally  concerned  for  the  education 
of  young  men.    It  is  significant  of  his  deep  interest  in 

84 


DAVID    MORTON 


education  that  we  find  him  actively  connected  with  the 
very  beginnings  of  both  classes  of  schools. 

In  1859,  at  the  session  of  the  Conference  held  at 
Bardstown,  a  Board  of  Commissioners  was  appointed 
''to  test  the  practicability  of  establishing  an  institution 
of  learning  at  Bowling  Green  for  the  education  of 
young  men."  This  Commission  was  composed  as  fol- 
lows :  Edward  Stevenson,  Z.  M.  Taylor,  N.  H.  Lee,  T. 
J.  Moore,  B.  F.  Wilson,  Henry  Grider,  T.  B.  Wright, 
James  Hines,  W.  J.  Underwood,  Presley  Meguiar. 
The  Commission  secured  the  transfer  of  the  charter  of 
the  Southern  College  of  Kentucky,  a  State  institution 
which  had  not  been  successful  in  establishing  itself, 
employed  an  architect,  prepared  plans  for  a  building 
costing  thirty-three  thousand  dollars,  laid  the  corner 
stone  with  due  ceremony,  and  had  the  greater  part  of 
the  foundation  laid  when  the  Conference  met  at  Bow- 
ling Green  in  i860.  At  this  Conference  Mr.  Morton 
was  appointed  agent  for  the  new  educational  enterprise. 
This  was  three  years  before  his  connection  with  Logan 
Female  College. 

The  breaking  out  of  the  war  put  an  end  to  the  plans 
so  well  begun.  Mr.  Morton,  when  finally  convinced 
that  the  raising  of  money  for  college  purposes  was 
impossible,  especially  so  with  the  proposed  seat  of  the 
college  an  important  strategic  military  point  contended 
for  by  both  armies,   withdrew   from  his  labors  and 

8s 


DAVID    MORTON 


retired  to  Russellville,  his  old  home,  until  the  next 
Conference,  of  1861,  when  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Elkton  Circuit. 

And  so  the  matter  rested  until  after  the  close  of  the 
war,  when  the  Conference  met  at  Russellville  in  1865, 
when  a  new  Board  of  Commissioners  was  appointed, 
as  follows :  S.  P.  Hines,  Henry  Grider,  P.  W.  Barclay, 
L  L.  Cooke,  David  Morton,  T.  B.  Wright,  Presley 
Meguiar.  A  new  charter  was  obtained  under  the  name 
of  Warren  College.  The  fate  of  the  school  is  thus 
briefly  told  by  Mr.  Morton : 

The  movement  to  build  Warren  College  at  Bowling 
Green  was  inaugurated  just  as  the  great  Civil  War  began 
and,  of  course,  was  suspended  till  hostilities  ended.  With 
the  return  of  peace  the  effort  was  revived ;  and  after  sev- 
eral years  of  Herculean  labor  by  its  friends,  a  building 
was  bought  and  the  college  opened.  For  a  time  there  was 
a  prospect  that  the  very  earnest  canvass  for  an  endow- 
ment which  was  instituted  would  be  successful  and  that 
the  accomplished  President  and  faculty  would,  in  spite 
of  the  disabilities  under  which  they  were  laboring,  build 
up  a  prosperous  and  permanent  college.  When  the  vic- 
tory seemed  almost  in  sight,  the  munificent  bequest  of  a 
deceased  citizen  of  Warren  County  established  a  free 
college,  which  absorbed  the  local  patronage,  and  the 
opening  of  Vanderbilt  University  diverted  the  support  of 
the  Church,  and  the  only  alternative  was  to  yield  to  the 
inevitable  and  go  into  liquidation. 

And  so  in  1878  the  college  ceased  to  be,  after  many 
years  of  effort  to  establish  it  by  the  Conference  and 

86 


DAVID    MORTON 


that,  too,  as  Mr.  Morton  says,  when  success  was  just 
ahead. 

The  Conference  now  turned  toward  the  new  Van- 
derbilt  University  and,  in  1884,  became  one  of  the 
patronizing  Conferences  of  that  institution  and  looked 
to  its  college  department  to  supply  the  deficiency  caused 
by  the  suspension  of  Warren  College.  A  few  years, 
however,  demonstrated  the  fact  that  there  was  need 
for  a  school  to  prepare  boys  to  enter  the  freshman 
class  of  the  college  department  at  Vanderbilt  and  to 
supply  educational  advantages  to  those  who  must  con- 
tent themselves,  by  force  of  circumstances,  with  less 
than  a  college  education. 

The  sentiment  for  such  a  school  grew  stronger  and 
stronger  until,  in  1891,  at  the  Conference  at  Cadiz,  it 
was  ordered  that  a  training  school  for  young  men  be 
located  within  the  bounds  of  the  Conference,  and  a 
Board  of  Managers  was  elected  with  power  to  act. 
Dr.  Morton  was  made  chairman  of  this  Board,  the 
other  members  being :  Gross  Alexander,  R.  W.  Brow- 
der,  James  A.  Lewis,  J.  M.  Lawson,  Joseph  McCon- 
nell,  J.  R.  Hindman,  C.  R.  Long,  A.  G.  Murphey.  In 
1892  the  Board  selected  Elkton  as  the  seat  of  the 
school,  and  in  the  same  year  the  school  was  opened  in 
rented  quarters,  and  in  1893  ^^^  "^^'^  building  was 
completed. 

Dr.   Morton  remained  President  of  the  Board  of 

87 


DAVID    MORTON 


Managers  until  his  death,  giving  Hberally  out  of  his 
own  pocket  and  gathering  largely  from  others.  The 
Morton  Edwards  Museum,  a  part  of  the  school's 
equipment,  was  founded  by  him  as  a  memorial  to  his 
little  grandson.  In  many  other  ways  he  proved  a 
faithful  and  capable  friend  of  the  school.  Dr.  R.  W. 
Browder,  who  is  now  the  President  of  the  Board  of 
Education  of  the  Louisville  Conference  and  who  had 
much  to  do  with  the  inauguration  of  this  school,  in 
writing  of  Dr.  Morton's  work  in  the  field  of  education 
states : 

Up  to  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  greatly  interested 
in  every  educational  enterprise  of  the  Conference  and 
among  the  most  liberal  contributors  to  all  of  them.  The 
history  of  the  educational  life  of  Kentucky  and  Kentucky 
Methodism  could  not  be  complete  without  the  history  of 
Dr.  David  Morton. 

Apart  from  building  schools  and  colleges  and  help- 
ing to  provide  for  their  support,  Mr.  Morton  lent  his 
efforts  to  other  forms  of  educational  endeavor.  The 
Board  of  Education  of  the  Louisville  Conference  was 
one  of  his  favorite  activities.  At  the  Conference  of 
1866  at  Elizabethtown  the  plan  for  this  Board  was 
presented,  having  been  formulated  by  David  Morton, 
W.  H.  Anderson,  and  Hon.  Ben  Helm.  The  first 
Board  consisted  of  Thomas  Bottomley,  John  H.  Linn, 
William  H.  Anderson,  Bird  C.  Levi,  and  John  A.  Car- 

88 


DAVID    MORTON 


ter.  David  Morton  was  appointed  first  agent  of  the 
Board.  A  charter  was  secured  from  the  Legislature 
of  Kentucky  in  1867.  It  was  proposed  to  raise  a  fund, 
to  be  securely  invested,  whose  capital  should  never  be 
used  for  any  purpose.  The  interest  should  be,  in  part, 
reinvested  so  as  constantly  to  increase  the  capital  and, 
in  part,  used  in  assisting  young  men  in  securing  an 
education,  those  preparing  for  the  ministry  to  receive 
help  first.  In  1880  arrangements  were  made  with 
Vanderbilt  University  by  which  young  ministers  were 
entered  under  terms  favorable  to  both  the  Board  and 
the  students.  Again  I  quote  Dr.  Gross  Alexander, 
who  says  of  Mr.  Morton's  work  in  this  connection: 

To  him  chiefly  this  organization,  with  its  more  than 
twenty  thousand  dollars  of  endowment  and  its  long  and 
honorable  record  of  helpful  service  in  the  education  of 
poor  young  preachers,  owes,  if  not  its  existence,  its  per- 
petuation and  success.  His  wise  foresight  and  earnest 
care  in  providing  for  the  future  are  well  illustrated  in 
the  constitution  of  this  Board,  which  provides  that  the 
principal  shall  not  be  expended  in  the  erection  of  build- 
ings or  otherwise,  but  invested  in  interest-bearing  securi- 
ties, so  that  it  might  yield  a  perpetual  income  for  current 
needs  and  particular  emergencies. 

From  the  fund  which  he  thus  jealously  guarded 
many  young  men  have  been  enabled  to  secure  an  edu- 
cation who  without  this  help  would  have  remained  un- 

89 


DAVID    MORTON 


educated  and,  therefore,  unable  to  fill  the  i>ositions  in 
life  which  they  now  occupy. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  Mr.  Morton  was  a  vital  factor  in 
these  three  important  educational  agencies  of  the  Lou- 
isville Conference — Logan  Female  College,  the  Van- 
derbilt  Training  School,  and  the  Board  of  Education 
— ^and  that  he  always  took  a  deep  personal  interest  in 
the  cause  of  Christian  education  in  general. 

90 


CHAPTER  VI. 

In  the  General  Conference. 

OIXTEEN  years  had  now  elapsed  since  David  Mor- 
^  ton  began  his  career  as  an  itinerant  preacher.  Dur- 
ing all  that  time  and  under  a  great  variety  of  circum- 
stances he  had  shown  himself  to  be  a  capable  and  faith- 
ful man  and  had  secured  a  strong  grip  on  the  respect 
and  esteem  of  his  brethren.  In  the  natural  order  of 
events  the  time  had  fully  come  when  he  should  be  given 
a  seat  in  the  chief  assembly  of  the  Church.  It  does  not 
surprise  us,  therefore,  to  learn  that  in  the  Fall  of  1869 
he  was  elected  one  of  the  four  clerical  delegates  from 
the  Louisville  Conference  to  the  General  Conference 
which  convened  in  Memphis,  Tenn.,  on  May  4,  1870. 
His  three  colleagues  were  Albert  H.  Redford,  Edmund 
W.  Sehon,  and  Nathaniel  L.  Lee.  To  be  sent  up  for 
the  first  time  in  such  company  was  a  great  honor. 

Dr.  Redford  was  then  at  the  summit  of  his  popular- 
ity. Excepting  only  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  he  was  per- 
haps the  most  influential  Methodist  in  his  native  State. 
During  the  war  he  had  been  a  staunch  Southerner.  At 
its  close  he  had  taken  an  unequivocal  stand  in  favor  of 
preserving  the  organization  of  Southern  Methodism 
intact.     He  w^as  the  author,  in  fact,  of  the  resolutions 

91 


DAVID    MORTON 


to  that  effect  which  passed  the  Louisville  Conference 
by  so  large  a  majority  in  1865.  Since  1866  he  had 
been  General  Book  Agent  and  was  believed  to  be  rap- 
idly lifting  the  load  of  debt  by  which  the  Publishing 
House  was  burdened.  The  fact  that  he  did  not  fulfill 
all  expectations  in  that  respect  was  not  wholly  his  fault, 
but  was  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  circumstances  l^eyond 
his  control.  He  had  also  written  and  published  a  val- 
uable, though  somewhat  fragmentary,  "History  of 
Methodism  in  Kentucky"  and  was  full  of  all  sorts  of 
activities. 

Dr.  Sehon  had  reached  and  passed  his  climax,  but 
was  still  regarded  by  the  whole  Church  with  great  fa- 
vor. In  1844  he  was  an  outstanding  member  of  the 
Ohio  Conference,  but  a  Virginian  by  birth.  Following 
his  natural  bent,  he  affiliated  with  the  Church,  South, 
as  Moses  Hinkle,  Samuel  Latta,  and  William  Burke 
also  did,  and  as  Randolph  S.  Foster  barely  missed  do- 
ing. Nothing  could  have  been  more  cordial  than  the 
manner  in  which  he  was  received  below  the  line.  The 
Tennessee  Conference,  to  which  he  was  first  trans- 
ferred, promptly  elected  him  to  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1846 ;  and  that  body,  in  view  of  his  great  pulpit 
and  platform  ability,  made  him  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Missions,  which  responsible  post  he  filled  with  honor 
for  many  years,  finally  retiring  from  it  to  resume  his 
old  and  best-loved  employ  as  a  pastor. 

92 


DAVID    MORTON 


Dr.  Lee  was  one  of  those  balanced  and  capable  men 
who  seem  to  be  as  fit  for  one  sort  of  work  as  for  an- 
other and  the  value  of  whose  service  is  beyond  all 
computation.  Like  Sehon,  he  was  a  native  Virginian, 
but  had  lived  in  Kentucky  from  his  early  youth. 
Though  almost  wholly  self-educated,  he  had  grown  to 
be  an  accomplished  theologian  and  a  preacher  of  the 
first  rank  and  had  behind  him  a  good  record  as  a  pas- 
tor, a  presiding  elder,  and  a  teacher.  All  in  all,  he 
was  just  the  kind  of  man  to  make  an  effective  and  trust- 
worthy legislator. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Church  lay- 
men were  to  sit  in  the  General  Conference.  It  was  a 
happy  coincidence  that  Mr.  Morton  was  to  go  in  at 
the  same  time.  His  association  with  laymen  had  al- 
ways been  particularly  close.  He  was  glad  to  see  them 
bring  the  benefit  of  their  wise  and  godly  counsels  into 
the  assemblies  of  the  Church ;  and  it  doubtless  pleased 
him  no  little  to  be  in  company  with  four  such  men  as 
J.  S.  Lithgow,  W.  B.  Machen,  J.  C.  Walker,  and  B.  F. 
Biggs,  whom  the  laymen  of  the  Louisville  Conference 
had  named  as  their  representatives. 

When  Mr.  Morton  took  his  seat  at  Memphis,  it  was 
like  turning  a  new  leaf  in  his  life.  Thenceforth  he 
was  to  be  a  connectional  man.  Always  he  had  felt  a 
deep  interest  in  connectional  affairs,  but  now  he  was 
to  belong  in  a  higher  sense  to  the  whole  Church.    It  is 

93 


DAVID    MORTON 


not  likely  that  there  was  a  single  person  among  all  the 
delegates  of  whom  he  did  not  have  some  knowledge, 
for  he  was  a  diligent  reader  of  the  Church  press  and 
kept  up  quite  carefully  with  all  that  went  on  in  every 
part  of  the  denomination.  No  man  appeared  above  the 
horizon  in  any  quarter  of  the  Church  without  attract- 
ing his  attention.  Nevertheless,  there  were  many  men 
of  prominence  about  whom  he  had  read,  but  whom  he 
had  never  seen.  To  meet  them  was  doubtless  a  great 
satisfaction  to  him. 

Bishop  Soule  had  died  in  the  early  part  of  the  pre- 
ceding quadrennium.  Bishop  Early,  though  still  in 
the  flesh,  was  ''in  age  and  feebleness  extreme."  He 
had  hoped  and  expected  to  reach  Memphis,  but  was 
finally  compelled  to  content  himself  with  a  letter  of 
greeting  and  love  to  the  body.  Fortunately,  Bishop 
Andrew,  in  spite  of  physical  infirmities,  was  on  hand. 
Not  able  to  stand  and  speak,  he  delivered  one  or  two 
brief  addresses  from  his  chair.  As  well  as  any  man 
that  ever  lived,  he  knew  how  to  "decrease"  beautifully. 
By  the  most  gracious  example  he  taught  all  his  younger 
brethren  that  it  is  possible  to  let  go  and  to  stand  aside 
without  becoming  sour  or  surly. 

Besides  the  whole  College  of  Bishops,  several  of 
whom  had  not  yet  presided  in  Kentucky  and  whom 
Mr.  Morton  was  now^  to  see  for  the  first  time,  there 
were  such  men  as  the  patriarchal  Lovick  Pierce,  then 

94 


DAVID    MORTON 


far  along  toward  his  ninetieth  year;  David  R.  Mc- 
Annally,  of  St.  Louis;  Andrew  Hunter,  of  Little  Rock; 
Ephraim  E.  Wiley  and  David  Sullins,  of  Holston; 
Samuel  Register  and  Samuel  S.  Roszell,  of  Baltimore; 
Leroy  M.  Lee  and  James  A.  Duncan,  of  Virginia;  N. 
F.  Reid  and  Braxton  Craven,  of  North  Carolina; 
Hugh  A.  C.  Walker  and  Whiteford  Smith,  of  South 
Carolina;  John  B.  McFerrin  and  A.  L.  P.  Green,  of 
Tennessee;  Thomas  L.  Boswell  and  George  W.  D. 
Harris,  of  Memphis ;  William  H.  Watkins  and  Charles 
K.  Marshall,  of  Mississippi ;  John  C.  Keener  and  Linus 
Parker,  of  Louisiana ;  Jefferson  Hamilton  and  Thomas 
O.  Summers,  of  Alabama;  Andrew  Monroe  and  Wil- 
liam M.  Rush,  of  Missouri;  Josephus  Anderson,  of 
Florida;  and  many  other  ministers  of  equal  standing 
from  different  parts  of  the  Church.  Among  the  lay- 
men also  there  were  not  a  few  of  wide  renown,  such 
as  Senator  W.  B.  Machen,  of  Kentucky;  Senator 
Trusten  Polk,  of  Missouri;  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle,  of 
South  Carolina;  Chancellor  Landon  C.  Garland,  of 
Mississippi;  Chief  Justice  James  Jackson  and  Gov. 
Alfred  H.  Colquitt,  of  Georgia;  Congressman  W.  M. 
Robbins,  of  North  Carolina;  John  F.  House,  of  Ten- 
nessee; Roger  Q.  Mills,  of  Texas;  Gen.  Robert  B. 
Vance,  of  North  Carolina;  and  Judge  IL  W.  Footc, 
of  Mississippi,  besides  many  others  who  stood  to  the 
front  in  everything  and  were  fine  specimens  of  all  that 

95 


DAVID    MORTON 


was  best  in  the  civic  and  religious  life  of  their  several 
communities. 

To  meet  v\^ith  such  men  in  even  a  casual  way  was  a 
distinct  intellectual  and  spiritual  stimulus.  To  be  close- 
ly associated  with  them  for  several  weeks  in  the  work 
of  the  committees,  to  participate  with  them  in  the  stir- 
ring debates  of  the  Conference  floor,  to  mingle  freely 
with  them  in  the  delights  of  social  intercourse,  and  to 
join  with  them  in  the  solemnities  of  worship  was  a 
great  enlargement  of  mind  and  character.  On  the 
"whole,  the  Conference  was  a  great  school  to  observing 
and  thoughtful  young  men.  Mr.  Morton  belonged  to 
that  class  and  no  doubt  profited  more  even  than  he 
was  aware  of  by  this  new  experience.  As  a  member 
of  the  Committee  on  Revisals  he  would  find  it  neces- 
sary to  study  the  Discipline  afresh  and  could  not  fail 
to  gather  much  additional  information  concerning  it 
from  the  free  and  open  comments  of  his  fellow  com- 
mitteemen. As  far  as  I  can  discover,  he  made  only 
one  speech  on  the  Conference  floor,  and  that  was  a 
characteristic  one.  The  Louisville  Methodists  wanted 
the  Publishing  House  moved  from  Nashville  to  their 
city  and  were  ready  to  give  a  bonus  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  in  cash  to  secure  that  end.  That  was,  for  the 
times,  a  large  sum  of  money.  Mr.  Morton  thought  it 
too  large  to  be  rejected.  He  also  put  emphasis  upon 
the  fact  that  Louisville  had  great  natural  advantages 

96 


DAVID    MORTON 


as  a  manufacturing  center.  But  he  could  not  overcome 
the  influence  of  Drs.  Green,  McFerrin,  and  others,  who 
were  opposed  to  the  movement. 

One  of  the  dramatic  incidents  of  the  Conference, 
not  likely  ever  to  be  forgotten  by  Mr.  Morton  or  any- 
body else  that  witnessed  it,  was  the  formal  visit  of 
Bishop  E.  L.  Janes  and  Dr.  W.  L.  Harris,  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  They  were  both  men 
of  commanding  appearance  and  ranked  with  the  wor- 
thiest leaders  of  their  branch  of  Methodism.  Bishop 
Janes  had  been  chosen  to  his  high  office  by  the  General 
Conference  of  1844,  though  he  was  then  only  thirty- 
seven  years  of  age  and  not  a  member  of  the  Confer- 
ence. As  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society  he  had 
traveled  extensively  through  the  Southern  States  and 
had  left  a  most  agreeable  memory  behind  him.  The 
Southern  delegates,  knowing  full  well  that  it  was  not 
possible  to  put  one  of  their  own  number  into  the  epis- 
copacy, concentrated  their  votes  on  Dr.  Janes  to  defeat 
the  election  of  another  radical  such  as  Leonidas  L. 
Hamline.  When  he  was  chosen,  they  were  demon- 
stratively glad  over  the  result.  The  last  service  that 
Lovick  Pierce  and  William  Capers  performed  in  the 
United  General  Conference  was  to  present  Dr.  Janes 
for  ordination.  As  a  bishop  he  had  fully  met  the 
hopes  of  even  his  most  sanguine  friends.  It  was  gen- 
erally understood  also  that  he  still  had  a  warm  side  for 
7  97 


DAVID    MORTON 


his  Southern  brethren.  Dr.  Harris  was  Hkewise  one 
of  the  great  men  of  his  communion.  He  had  been 
for  many  years  a  professor  in  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity and,  after  that,  one  of  the  General  Missionary 
Secretaries.  In  all  matters  pertaining  to  ecclesiastical 
law  he  was  counted  an  expert.  As  Secretary  of  the 
General  Conference  he  was  almost  without  a  peer. 
His  election  to  the  episcopacy  a  few  years  later  was 
a  sort  of  foreordained  event  and  surprised  nobody. 

The  object  of  these  gentlemen  in  visiting  the  Con- 
ference was  to  raise  the  question  of  organic  union. 
They  were  treated  with  great  courtesy.  On  that  point 
their  own  testimony  is  entirely  explicit.  Bishop  Janes, 
who  spoke  before  the  open  Conference,  was  most  tact- 
ful. His  references  to  the  old  days  and  to  his  own 
friendship  for  several  of  the  older  members  of  the 
Conference  went  straight  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers. 
If  he  had  been  duly  and  fully  authorized  to  tender 
terms  of  reunion  or  even  of  formal  fraternity,  he 
might  have  met  with  some  practical  and  favorable 
response,  though  even  then  he  could  hardly  have  car- 
ried the  majority  of  his  hearers  with  him.  But, 
strangely  enough,  he  showed  some  lack  of  acquaintance 
with  the  exact  nature  of  his  own  commission.  When 
he  was  seated,  Dr.  John  C.  Keener,  of  Louisiana,  one 
of  the  alertest  men  before  him,  arose  and  said :  "I  have 
listened,  together  with  the  rest  of  my  brethren,  to  the 

98 


DAVID    MORTOJ^i 


Christian  and  very  earnest  spirit  of  our  brethren  from 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Coming  to  us,  as 
they  do,  across  a  period  of  disaster  and  division,  they 
are  especially  grateful  to  us."  Then,  producing  a  copy 
of  the  Journal  of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  for  1868,  he  read  the  resolu- 
tion under  which  Bishop  Janes  and  Dr.  Harris  were 
acting,  and  which  revealed  the  fact,  that  they  had  been 
specially  commissioned  to  treat  only  with  the  African 
Zion  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  that  their  func- 
tions had  been  afterwards  extended  in  a  general  way  so 
as  to  empower  them  to  treat  with  any  other  Methodist 
organization  desiring  to  unite  with  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church.  In  view  of  these  facts.  Dr.  Keener  in- 
sisted that  the  visitors  had  not  been  properly  deputed  to 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  offered 
the  following  resolutions : 

Resolved:  i.  That,  gratefully  recognizing  that  Provi- 
dence has  heretofore  guided  us,  multiplied  us,  and 
strengthened  our  hands  under  trying  conditions,  both  of 
war  and  of  peace,  as  a  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  ear- 
nestly desire  to  cultivate  true  Christian  fellowship  with 
every  other  branch  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  especial- 
ly with  our  brethren  of  the  several  branches  of  Method- 
ism in  this  country  and  in  Europe. 

2.  That  the  action  of  our  Board  of  Bishops  at  their 
last  annual  meeting  in  St.  Louis  in  response  to  the  mes- 
sage from  the  Board  of  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  has  the  full  indorsement  of  this  General 

99 


I^AVID    MORTON 


Conference  and  accurately  defines  our  position  in  refer- 
ence to  any  overtures  which  may  proceed  from  that 
Church  having  in  them  an  official  and  proper  recognition 
of  this  body. 

3.  That  the  distinguished  commission  now  present 
of  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  at  Chicago  in  May,  1868,  appointed  by  it  specif- 
ically to  consider  with  commissioners  from  the  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  arrange  for  union  with 
that  body  and  to  treat  with  similar  commissions  from 
any  other  Church  which  may  desire  a  like  union,  cannot, 
in  our  judgment,  be  construed,  without  great  violence, 
as  having  been  constituted  by  that  General  Conference  a 
committee  to  bear  its  fraternal  expressions  to  the  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

4.  That  we  are  highly  gratified  at  the  visit  of  the 
commission  as  indicative  of  the  return  of  the  proper 
Christian  sentiments  and  relations  between  the  two  great 
branches  of  Northern  and  Southern  Methodism  and  that 
we  extend  to  them  personally  our  highest  regards  as 
brethren  beloved  in  the  Lord. 

These  resolutions  were  referred,  to  a  committee  of 
nine,  which  subsequently  brought  in  a  report  approving 
and  somewhat  enlarging  them,  and  this  report  was 
adopted  and  made  the  action  of  the  Conference.  The 
result  was  that  in  1874  three  commissioners  from  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Drs.  Albert  S.  Hunt  and 
Charles  H.  Fowler  and  Gen.  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  appeared 
before  the  General  Conference  at  Louisville  with  ex- 
plicit credentials  and  a  tender  of  fraternity  and  were 

100 


DAVID    MOR-XO:N:     : 


joyfully  received.  The  front  door  had  been  open  all 
the  time,  but  not  the  back  one.  I  have  dwelt  longer 
probably  than  some  may  think  necessary  on  this  partic- 
ular event,  but  it  was  bound  up  with  David  Morton's 
life  and  deserves  to  be  set  forth  with  i^erfect  clearness. 
The  mention  of  John  C.  Keener's  name  in  the  imme- 
diately foregoing  paragraphs  leads  me  to  say  that  on 
May  23,  following,  he  was  elected  bishop.  His  chief 
competitor  was  Dr.  James  A.  Duncan,  of  Virginia. 
On  the  first  ballot  the  vote  stood:  Keener,  eighty- 
seven;  Duncan,  eighty-four,  with  a  good  many  bal- 
lots scattering,  and  there  was  no  choice.  On  the  sec- 
ond it  stood :  Keener,  ninety-six ;  Duncan,  eighty- four ; 
and  Keener  was  declared  to  be  elected.  He  was  a 
native  of  Baltimore  and  a  graduate  of  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity, Middletown,  Connecticut.  His  whole  ministry 
had  been  spent  in  Alabama  and  Louisiana,  and  New  Or- 
leans was  now  his  home.  As  a  pastor  he  had  displayed 
great  evangelistic  power.  Revivals  of  religion  broke 
out  under  his  faithful  and  searching  preaching.  As  a 
presiding  elder  he  had  exhibited  almost  supreme  gifts. 
As  editor  of  the  New  Orleans  Christian  Advocate  he 
had  set  a  pace  that  was  hard  for  anybody  to  follow. 
Speaking  generally,  it  is  allowable  to  say  that  he  had 
made  more  permanent  tracks  in  Louisiana  than  any 
other  Methodist  minister  that  ever  entered  the  State. 
In  his  new  office  he  speedily  came  to  be  looked  upon 

lOI 


■  D-.AVID    MORTON 


as  the  full  equal  of  any  of  his  colleagues.  Profoundly 
consecrated  to  Christ,  a  deep  and  constant  student,  a 
keen  and  subtle  thinker,  an  earnest  and  efficient  admin- 
istrator, a  leader  whenever  new  paths  were  to  be  struck 
out,  an  ardent  advocate  of  missions  and  of  Christian 
education,  interested  in  everything  that  could  touch  the 
life  and  growth  of  the  Church,  he  continued  in  active 
service  till  1898,  and  then  went  on  the  retired  list  till 
his  death,  in  1906.  From  1889  to  1898  he  was  the 
senior  bishop  of  the  Church. 

Dr.  Duncan,  who  came  so  near  to  being  elected,  was 
the  son  of  that  eminent  scholar.  Professor  David  Dun- 
can, so  long  connected  with  Randolph-Macon  and  Wof- 
ford  Colleges  and  the  elder  brother  of  the  late  Bishop 
William  Wallace  Duncan.  At  the  time  which  we  are 
now  considering  he  was  barely  forty  years  of  age.  His 
career  had  been  brilliant  almost  l^eyond  belief.  In  the 
Virginia  Conference,  that  had  produced  so  many  nota- 
bly great  preachers,  he  was  admitted  by  everybody  to  be 
the  greatest  of  all.  Current  rumor  ran  to  the  effect 
that  his  own  colleagues  from  Virginia  voted  against 
making  him  a  bishop  because  they  were  not  willing  to 
spare  him  from  the  presidency  of  their  Conference 
college.  Whether  this  is  so  or  not,  it  is  quite  likely 
that  his  heroic  toils  for  that  institution  brought  him 
to  his  grave  before  there  was  another  chance  to  pro- 
mote him.    In  1870,  however,  he  appeared,  with  Chan- 

102 


DAVID    MORTON 


cellor  Garland,  before  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Baltimore  as  the  first 
fraternal  messenger  received  from  our  Church  and  set 
a  standard  for  high  and  glorious  eloquence  which  none 
of  his  successors  have  ever  been  able  to  reach.  Beau- 
tiful in  person,  irresistibly  charming  in  social  life,  the 
memory  of  him  still  lingers  in  Virginia  as  lustrous  as 
the  morning  star. 

Another  matter  of  great  importance  that  came  be- 
fore the  Conference  was  that  of  Christian  education  in 
general  and  ministerial  education  in  particular.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  War  between  the  States  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church,  South,  had  made,  good  progress 
in  the  matter  of  founding  and  endowing  its  colleges. 
No  other  denomination  in  the  country  had  done  better. 
But  the  war  played  havoc  with  nearly  every  one  of  its 
institutions  of  learning.  When  peace  came  they  had 
nothing  left  but  their  buildings,  and  some  of  them  were 
in  ruins.  Very  courageously  the  Christian  scholars 
who  filled  the  faculties  undertook  to  go  on  with  their 
work.  There  is  no  finer  chapter  in  heroisms  than  that 
which  tells  of  their  efforts.  Inevitably,  however,  they 
found  themselves  compassed  about  by  all  sorts  of  dif- 
ficulties and  were  often  tempted  to  wonder  what  the 
final  outcome  would  be.  At  this  particular  General 
Conference  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Educa- 
tion was  Chancellor  Landon  C.  Garland,  one  of  the 

103 


DAVID    MORTON 


best-equipped  scholars  that  the  country  had  yet  pro- 
duced. Two  or  three  of  the  reports  which  he  wrote 
are  really  discussions  of  the  whole  question  of  educa- 
tion and  deserve  a  careful  reading  even  at  the  present 
day.  One  of  them  favored  the  establishment  of  a  the- 
ological seminary;  but  the  Conference  was  not  quite 
ready  to  commit  itself  to  the  idea  of  theological  teach- 
ing separate  and  apart  from  the  general  scholastic 
training,  and  so  the  project  failed.  But  the  agitation 
of  the  whole  matter  had  a  marked  effect  on  the  public 
mind  and,  no  doubt,  led  on  to  the  movement  that  issued 
in  1873,  the  founding  of  the  Vanderbilt  University. 

The  Conference  did  nothing  that  was  of  greater  sig- 
nificance than  the  thorough  overhauling  which  it  gave 
to  the  Sunday  School  Department.  By  throwing  over- 
board all  the  obsolete  methods  and  falling  into  line 
with  the  other  Protestant  Churches  in  the  effort  to 
teach  the  whole  Bible  systematically  to  each  successive 
generation,  it  showed  a  wisdom  worthy  of  its  day; 
and  by  singling  out  Atticus  G.  Haygood,  a  young 
Georgian  of  infinite  potencies  and  afterwards  to  be 
felt  in  tvery  sphere  of  the  Churches  activities,  and 
making  him  Secretary,  it  displayed  a  practical  sagacity 
which  Churchmen  are  not  usually  supposed  to  possess. 

But  why  have  I  inserted  all  these  things  here  ?  Sim- 
ply because  I  wished  to  show  how  David  Morton,  now 
thirty-six  years  of  age,  was  thrown  into  the  very  mid- 
104 


Vanderbilt  Training 
In  1860  David  Morton  was 
ment  to  establish  a  school 
ference,  and  he  continued 
its  fruition  in  the  establi 
School  in  1891,  thirty-one 
of  the  Board  of  Managers 
beginning-  until  his  death 


School,  Elkton,  Kentucky- 
appointed  agent  for  the  move- 
for  boys  in  the  Louisville  Con- 
closely  identified  with  it  until 

shinent   of  Vanderbilt   Training 
years  later.     He  was  President 

of  the  Training  School  from  the 
in   1898. 


DAVID    MORTON 


stream  of  the  Church's  Hfe  in  such  a  way  as  to  broaden 
and  quicken  all  his  faculties.  It  was  by  processes  such 
as  these  that  God  was  gradually  maturing  him  for  that 
larger  place  which  he  was  thereafter  to  take  and  hold 
in  the  kingdom.  No  man  can  escape  the  influence  of 
his  surroundings.  True  greatness  is  bred,  not  in  the 
seclusion  of  the  study  or  the  closet,  but  in  the  open 
conflicts  of  the  everyday  world.  Men  grow  strong  by 
wrestling  with  their  fellow  men. 

In  May,  1878,  Mr.  Morton  went  up  to  the  General 
Conference  which  met  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  to  which,  as 
stated  in  a  following  chapter,  he  had  been  elected  as 
a  delegate  from  the  Denver  Conference.  To  his  great 
surprise,  his  right  to  a  seat  was  challenged  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  not  competent  for  a  minister  to 
represent  a  Conference  of  which  he  was  no  longer  a 
member.  The  only  question  that  raised  any  doubt  was 
a  purely  legal  one.  In  the  end  Mr.  Morton  was  seated 
and  assigned  to  the  Committee  on  Education  and  the 
Committee  on  the  Publishing  House,  for  both  of  which 
he  had  special  fitness. 

On  the  latter  of  these  committees  he  found  it  neces- 
sary to  do  some  things  which  for  a  time  interrupted 
his  long-standing  friendship  with  Dr.  Redford,  the 
General  Book  Agent.  Owing  to  various  causes,  which 
it  is  not  necessary  to  recount  here,  the  Publishing 
House  had  become  seriously  involved  in  financial  diffi- 

105 


DAVID    MORTON 


culties,  and  it  was  necessary  to  take  heroic  measures 
for  rescuing  it.  Dr.  Redford  was  a  born  optimist.  It 
was  his  natural  inclination  to  take  a  rosy  view  of  things. 
He  had,  moreover,  a  boundless  energy  and  never  ques- 
tioned his  ability  to  work  out  any  enterprise  that  had 
been  committed  to  his  hands.  In  the  bottom  of  his 
soul  he  felt  that  he  deserved  praise  and  not  blame,  and 
many  of  his  friends  shared  the  same  view.  Others, 
however,  who  were  at  least  equally  wise,  Mr.  Morton 
among  them,  saw  the  matter  in  a  different  light  and 
could  do  nothing  less  than  stand  by  their  convictions. 
The  result  is  history.  Dr.  Redford  was  dropped  from 
his  office,  and  Dr.  McFerrin  was  put  into  the  vacant 
place.  The  Church  rallied  to  his  call  and  subscribed 
three  hundred  thousand  dollars  long-term  four  per  cent 
bonds,  thus  relieving  the  immediate  pressure  and  open- 
ing the  way  to  a  wonderful  history.  All  the  parties 
concerned  in  the  whole  affair  have  long  since  been  in 
the  other  world  and,  no  doubt,  have  come  to  see  one 
another  in  a  truer  and  clearer  light.  Mr.  Morton  never 
at  any  time  hesitated  as  to  his  course  in  the  affair,  but 
he  carefully  avoided  anything  like  harsh  or  bitter  feel- 
ings concerning  it. 

At  this  General  Conference  Mr.  Morton  was  enabled 
to  perform  a  real  service  for  the  Church  in  Montana, 
from  which  he  had  just  returned,  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
following  chapter.     The  effort  to  have  the  Montana 

io6 


DAVID    MORTON 


Conference  created  four  years  previously  had  failed, 
much  to  the  disappointment  of  the  infant  Church  in 
that  far-away  land.  Mr.  Morton  was  a  strong  advo- 
cate for  a  Montana  Conference,  and  how  he  pushed 
the  matter  through  to  success  is  thus  told  by  Rev.  E.  J. 
Stanley  in  his  life  of  that  fearless  pioneer  preacher  of 
Montana  Methodism,  L.  B.  Stateler: 

At  the  session  of  the  Helena  District  Conference  held 
at  Boulder  in  February,  1878,  the  Montana  delegate  was 
instructed  to  urge  the  ensuing  General  Conference,  which 
was  to  meet  the  following  May  at  Atlanta,  Georgia,  to  or- 
ganize the  work  into  a  separate  Conference.  With  only 
five  members  to  start  with,  it  appeared  like  a  hopeless  ef- 
fort ;  but  it  was  believed  by  those  on  the  ground  that  the 
>ermanence  of  our  Church  in  Montana  depended  upon  the 
success  of  the  measure.  It  was  carried  through  the  effi- 
cient and  persistent  effort  of  David  Morton,  assisted  by 
other  earnest  and  true  men  who  ably  advocated  the  meas- 
ure. Thus,  after  four  long  and  weary  years  of  anxious 
watching,  working,  and  waiting,  the  request  was  granted. 

In  a  spirit  of  great  sadness  the  Conference  took  no- 
tice of  the  death  of  Bishop  Enoch  M.  Marvin,  which 
had  occurred  during  the  preceding  quadrennium.  He 
was  only  fifty-four  years  old  when  his  end  came,  but 
had  secured  a  hold  upon  the  esteem  and  affection  of  the 
Church  which  was  not  less  than  wonderful.  Without 
any  early  advantages,  and  solely  by  virtue  of  native 
endowment  and  consecrated  diligence,  he  grew  step  by 
step  to  be  a  great  thinker,  a  great  preacher,  a  great 

107 


DAVID    MORTON 


general  superintendent.  Many  and  varied  as  were  his 
gifts,  the  thing  that  distinguished  him  most  was  his 
unflagging  fervor  in  evangehstic  labors.  Always  and 
everywhere  he  was  a  messenger  of  Christ.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  in  this  respect  the  Church  has  ever  had 
quite  his  equal.  He  was  not  merely  honored,  but 
loved.  His  namesakes  may  be  counted  by  the  thou- 
sands. 

It  is  a  coincidence  that  the  same  General  Confer- 
ence that  passed  its  final  eulogies  on  Bishop  Marvin 
should  have  called  into  connectional  service  another 
man  who  still  lingers  among  us,  in  his  eighty-second 
year.  I  mean  Alpheus  W.  Wilson.  By  a  large  major- 
ity he  was  chosen  General  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Missions;  and  though  he  held  that  post  for  only  four 
years,  he  gave  an  impulse  to  the  missionary  cause  that 
lingers  and  abides  to  this  day.  In  1882  he  was  elected 
to  the  episcopacy  and  has  adorned  the  office  thirty- 
three  years,  sixteen  years  of  that  time  as  senior  bishop. 
His  retirement  from  active  service  at  the  General  Con- 
ference of  19 14  was  a  source  of  deep  regret  to  thou- 
sands of  Methodists.  I  here  put  it  on  record  as  my 
deliberate  judgment  that  no  mightier  preacher  of  the 
gospel  has  ever  arisen  in  any  branch  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  if,  indeed,  in  any  Church. 

Dr.  Morton  was  not  a  member  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1882,  which  met  at  Nashville,  Tennessee, 

108 


DAVID    MORTON 


although  this  General  Conference  created  the  Board  of 
Church  Extension  and  elected  him  Corresponding  Sec- 
retary thereof.  He  was  a  member,  however,  of  every 
General  Conference  thereafter  until  his  death ;  and  the 
action  of  the  General  Conferences  in  so  far  as  it  relates 
to  the  work  of  Church  Extension  is  discussed  in  the 
chapter  dealing  with  that  part  of  Dr.  Morton's  life. 

Dr.  Morton  as  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1886  rendered  useful  service  in  that  capac- 
ity. He  participated  in  the  election  of  four  bishops 
— ^William  Wallace  Duncan,  Charles  B.  Galloway,  Eu- 
gene R.  Hendrix,  and  Joseph  S.  Key — all  of  whom 
became  his  trusted  colaborers  on  the  Board  of  Church 
Extension  and  his  own  personal  friends. 

Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire  had  been  a  sort  of  right- 
hand  man  to  Dr.  Morton.  His  steady  and  cordial 
support  had  meant  much  in  the  launching  of  the  new 
Board  of  Church  Extension.  Unfortunately  enough, 
this  was  to  be  his  last  General  Conference.  Though 
the  public  was  not  aware  of  the  fact,  he  was  already 
showing  marked  signs  of  physical  weakness.  Three 
years  later,  after  a  long  and  weary  illness,  he  passed 
into  the  eternal  world.  He  was  a  colossal  man.  In 
the  strength  of  his  character  and  in  the  range  and 
scope  of  his  influence  no  man  of  his  generation  sur- 
passed him,  and  very  few  equaled  him.  He  was  built 
apparently  to  last  for  fourscore  years.     His  death  at 

109 


DAVID    MORTON 


the  early  age  of  sixty-five  was  an  almost  irreparable 
loss  to  the  Church. 

At  this  General  Conference,  only  four  years  after 
his  first  election  to  the  secretaryship  of  the  Board  of 
Church  Extension,  Dr.  Morton  received  more  than 
forty  votes  for  the  episcopacy ;  and  four  years  later  he 
was  equally  honored.  It  need  scarcely  be  said  that 
these  votes  were  entirely  spontaneous  and  represented 
the  honest  convictions  and  feelings  of  the  delegates 
who  cast  them.  That  Dr.  Morton  himself  ever  made 
anything  like  a  canvass  or  even  spoke  a  single  word 
of  solicitation  to  any  human  being  in  his  own  behalf 
is  simply  impossible.  Even  if  his  piety  had  not  been 
deep  enough  to  hinder  him  from  doing  anything  of 
this  sort,  as  it  certainly  was,  his  self-respect  was  alto- 
gether sufficient  to  prevent  him  from  directly  or  indi- 
rectly appealing  to  anybody  for  support.  He  would  no 
more  have  fawned  upon  his  brethren  with  a  view  of 
securing  their  ballots  than  he  would  have  leaped  over  a 
precipice.  The  writer  of  these  pages  chances  to  know, 
in  fact,  that  while  the  voting  was  actually  going  on  in 
St.  Louis  in  1890,  and  Dr.  Morton  was  known  to  stand 
a  very  good  chance  of  election,  he  went  to  several  of 
his  best  friends  and  urged  them  to  vote  for  another 
man.  There  is  no  question  that  his  action  at  that  crit- 
ical point  materially  helped  to  determine  the  final  result. 

That  Dr.  Morton  would  have  made  an  excellent 
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DAVID    MORTON 


bishop  if  he  had  been  chosen  to  that  post  is  believed 
by  all  who  were  well  acquainted  with  his  gifts  and 
equipments.  He  possessed  the  vigor  of  intellect,  the 
force  of  will,  and  the  soundness  of  Christian  character 
which  ought  to  belong  to  the  man  who  is  made  an  over- 
seer of  the  Church  of  God.  I  have  said  at  another 
place  in  this  volume  that  strength  rather  than  brilliancy 
was  his  chief  mental  characteristic.  He  knew  how  to 
deal  with  men  and  affairs.  While  as  a  preacher  he  did 
not  rank  with  Bascom  and  Kavanaugh,  the  two  great 
Kentuckians  who  were  singled  out  for  episcopal  serv- 
ice, he  yet  had  some  endowments  which  neither  one  of 
them  possessed.  The  Church  never  set  him  to  any  task 
that  he  did  not  discharge  with  dignity  and  honor.  As 
a  bishop  he  would  have  been  worthy  of  all  respect. 

Dr.  Morton  was  again  elected  at  the  head  of  the 
Louisville  Conference  delegation  to  the  General  Con- 
ference of  1890  at  St.  Louis  and  assigned  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Episcopacy. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  incidents  of  this  General 
Conference  was  the  coming  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  D.  J.  Wal- 
ler as  fraternal  messenger  from  the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence. His  mission  was  a  delicate  one.  The  mother 
Conference  had  up  to  that  time  refused  to  give  any  for- 
mal recognition  to  the  Southern  Methodists.  During 
the  War  between  the  States  it  had  listened  to  some  very 
bitter  speeches  from  Bishop  Simpson,  Dr.  John  Mc- 

III 


DAVID    MORTON 


Clintock,  and  others,  the  result  of  which  was  to  lower 
still  further  its  estimate  of  the  folks  below  the  Ohio. 
The  common  British  notion  at  that  time  was  that,  till 
the  Southerners  repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  of 
their  "connection  with  slavery,"  they  should  be  held  at 
arm's  length.  By  a  process  of  reasoning  which  was 
certainly  very  queer,  the  one  body  of  Methodists  in  all 
the  world  who  had  done  vastly  most  to  Christianize  the 
slaves  and  to  alleviate  their  woes  was  thus  held  up  to 
the  general  scorn  and  contempt  of  Christendom.  But 
time  works  wonders.  The  Southern  Methodists  knew 
their  own  record  and  were  not  ashamed  of  it ;  rather 
they  gloried  in  it  and  felt  certain  of  their  final  vindi- 
cation before  God  and  man.  They  never  repented  of 
their  attitude  toward  the  negro.  But  other  people 
came  to  see  things  in  a  different  light.  The  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  made  a  straightforward  offer  of  fra- 
ternity to  them  in  1874;  and  now,  twelve  years  later, 
the  English  Methodists  followed  their  gracious  exam- 
pie. 

No  better  man  than  Dr.  Waller  could  have  been 
chosen  for  opening  up  the  way  to  reconciliation.  He 
was  large,  balanced,  and  sensible.  Before  coming 
across  the  sea  he  took  special  pains  to  inform  himself 
concerning  the  great  issues  that  had  been  the  lines  of 
separation.  He  was  too  wise  to  express  any  apologies 
for  his  own  people  and  too  considerate  to  ask  for  any 

112 


DAVID    MORTON 


from  those  he  had  come  to  visit.  The  past,  he  knew, 
was  gone.  No  good  could  come  from  stirring  up  its 
bitter  memories.  It  was  better  to  admit  that  under 
difficult  conditions  all  parties  had  honestly  tried  to  do 
their  duty  as  they  saw  it.  The  present  carried  with  it 
a  tremendous  appeal — and  the  future.  Nothing  could 
have  been  more  tactful  than  Dr.  Waller's  approaches 
and  nothing  more  cordial  than  the  manner  of  his  re- 
ception. His  public  utterances  were  heard  with  de- 
light, and  his  deportment  in  all  the  social  circles  won 
him  universal  good  will. 

It  was  a  great  joy  to  Dr.  Morton  to  assist  at  this 
time  in  the  election  to  the  episcopacy  of  two  of  his 
dearest  friends,  Dr.  Atticus  G.  Haygood  and  Dr.  O. 
P.  Fitzgerald,  both  of  whom  by  long  years  of  faithful 
and  capable  service  had  fairly  earned  the  admiration 
and  love  of  the  whole  Church. 

Before  the  Conference  closed,  it  provided  for  the  or- 
ganization of  a  General  Board  of  Education.  The  mat- 
ter had  been  mooted  in  1886,  but  had  then  failed  of  se- 
curing the  approval  of  a  majority  of  the  delegates.  In 
the  intervening  period  the  drift  of  opinion  had  become 
more  favorable  to  it.  Dr.  William  W.  Smith,  of  Vir- 
ginia, who  had  warmly  advocated  it,  was  elected  its  first 
Secretary.  In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  however,  he 
resigned  the  post  and  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  R.  J. 
Bigham,  of  the  North  Georgia  Conference. 
8  113 


DAVID    MORTON 


Dr.  Morton  again  went  up  at  the  head  of  the  Lx)uis- 
ville  Conference  delegation  to  the  General  Conference 
which  met  at  Memphis,  Tenn.,  in  1894,  and  was  again 
appointed  to  the  Committee  on  Episcopacy. 

The  fraternal  messengers  from  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  were  Dr.  John  F.  Goucher  and  Dr.  Henry 
Wade  Rogers,  the  latter  a  distinguished  layman  and 
now  a  United  States  circuit  judge.  Both  spoke  ad- 
mirably and  elicited  much  applause.  Dr.  Rogers  fairly 
brought  down  the  house  with  the  categorical  affirma- 
tion that  the  act  of  the  Southern  Conferences  in  or- 
ganizing a  General  Conference  in  1844-46  was  an  act, 
not  of  secession,  but  of  separation.  It  is  worth  noting 
in  this  connection  that  not  one  of  the  papers  of  his 
Church  approved  his  utterance  and  that  not  one  of  his 
successors  has  ever  since  ventured  to  make  a  similar 
concession. 

This  was  the  fifth  and  last  General  Conference  that 
Dr.  Morton  attended.  Although  he  was  also  elected  at 
the  head  of  the  Louisville  Conference  delegation  to  the 
General  Conference  of  1898,  he  died  a  little  while  be- 
fore it  convened.  He  was  not  expecting  to  reach  the 
end  of  his  journey  for  many  years,  nor  did  anybody 
else  suppose  that  he  would  soon  be  called  away.  Going 
back  home,  he  took  up  his  customary  round  of  duties  as 
Church  Extension  Secretary,  which  had  become  very 
familiar  to  him,  and  hoped,  no  doubt,  to  accomplish 

114 


DAVID    MORTON 


still  greater  things  for  the  Church  than  he  had  yet 
done.  There  was  no  slackening  of  his  gait.  For  the 
next  three  years  he  kept  always  going  and  always 
with  great  thoughts  fermenting  in  his  mind.  The 
Conferences  rallied  to  him  with  increasing  enthusiasm. 
He  had  become  a  central  and  commanding  figure 
among  his  brethren.  It  is  my  deliberate  judgment 
that  at  this  time  he  was  the  most  influential  man,  min- 
ister or  layman,  in  the  Church.  What  he  said  on  any 
subject  went  a  great  way.  What  David  Morton  fully 
approved  and  supported  was  more  than  likely  to  be 
enacted  into  law,  and  what  he  opposed  was  pretty  sure 
to  be  voted  down.  His  influence  as  a  legislator  became 
constantly  larger  and  stronger.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  in  this  respect  probably  the  most  potent 
man  in  the  Church,  the  one  whose  word  counted  most 
in  the  determination  of  policies  and  swayed  most  deep- 
ly the  convictions  and  actions  of  his  brethren  who  came 
up  with  him  to  the  quadrennial  gatherings. 

IIS 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Presiding  Elder — East  and  West. 

/^  NE  of  the  strangest  things  in  Mr.  Morton's  career 
^^  is  the  fact  that  he  waited  for  twenty  years  after 
entering  the  itinerancy  before  being  called  to  the  presid- 
ing eldership.  For  those  who  knew  him  in  his  maturity 
it  always  seemed  that  both  nature  and  grace  had  emi- 
nently fitted  him  for  that  office.  There  must  have  been 
some  special  reason  for  the  delay  in  his  advancement. 
My  guess  is — and  it  is  somewhat  more  than  a  mere 
guess — that  he  was  held  back  for  several  years  because 
he  was  so  obviously  and  imperatively  needed  in  the 
field  of  education.  It  is  made  perfectly  clear  in  the 
foregoing  pages  that,  but  for  his  wise,  persistent,  and 
useful  labors  for  Logan  Female  College,  it  would  have 
met  the  same  fate  which  came  to  so  many  other  Meth- 
odist schools  in  Kentucky. 

But  by  1873  ^"^is  task  as  President  and  Financial 
Agent  was  so  well  advanced  that  the  presiding  bishop 
concluded  that  he  could  be  spared  for  the  headship  of 
the  Russellville  District  and  accordingly  placed  him  in 
that  position.  It  already  must  have  occurred  to  every 
reader  of  this  biography  that  Russellville  was  one  of 
the  fixed  centers  of  his  life.     He  was  born  there,  con- 

116 


DAVID    MORTON 


verted  there,  licensed  to  preach  there,  sent  up  thence  to 
the  Annual  Conference,  and  sent  back  thither  to  the 
college.  And  now  he  was  to  begin  his  presiding  elder- 
ship there.  Already  he  knew  the  community  and  the 
country  round  about  as  few  other  men  ever  knew 
them.  If  he  had  been  dropped  down  by  night  at  any 
place  in  his  district,  it  would  not  have  taken  him  long 
to  find  out  just  where  he  was. 

As  intimated  above,  he  was  no  mere  "prentice  hand'* 
in  his  new  office.  He  knew  in  advance  what  its  duties 
and  responsibilities  were  likely  to  be;  and  he  had, 
moreover,  an  unusual  capacity  for  discharging  them. 
To  begin  with,  he  was  a  strong,  deliberate,  and  effec- 
tive preacher,  knowing  and  loving  the  essential  doc- 
trines of  Methodism,  and  able  to  set  them  clearly  and 
effectively  before  the  people.  In  familiarity  with  the 
Discipline  of  the  Church — its  letter  and  its  spirit — 
nobody  surpassed  him.  In  the  social  circle  he  was  a 
master  and  made  an  easy  entry  into  all  sorts  of  homes, 
mingling  with  the  rich  and  intelligent  without  embar- 
rassment and  with  the  poor  without  offensive  conde- 
scension. His  quarterly  meetings,  especially  on  the 
circuits,  were  real  occasions.  When  he  came  around, 
it  meant  that  everything  was  going  to  move  up,  that 
the  salaries  of  the  preachers  in  charge  were  going  to 
be  increased  and  promptly  paid,  that  the  Conference 
collections,  were  going  to  be  fully  secured,  that  religious 

117 


DAVID    MORTON 


literature  of  all  kinds  was  going  to  be  widely  circu- 
lated, and  that  the  whole  business  of  the  Church  was 
going  to  be  conducted  in  a  dignified  and  orderly  way. 
It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  no  interest  of  Method- 
ism suffered  under  his  supervision.  He  was  alert, 
keen-eyed,  swift- footed,  taking  cognizance  both  of  the 
common  needs  of  the  Church  and  of  special  emergen- 
cies and  organizing  his  forces  so  as  to  meet  whatever 
conditions  might  arise.  That  he  could  easily  have  gone 
on  without  change  for  the  full  quadrennium  is  alto- 
gether certain. 

But  in  1876  the  bishops  determined  to  send  a  com- 
petent man  to  look  over  the  field  and  report  what  the 
prospects  for  Southern  Methodism  really  were  in  far-off 
Montana.  During  the  Civil  War  the  Rev.  Learner  B. 
Stateler  and  other  Missouri  Methodists,  distressed  by 
the  unsettled  conditions  surrounding  them,  had  cou- 
rageously ventured  to  take  their  families  and  belong- 
ings into  the  very  heart  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
They  were  diligent  and  thrifty  people  and  prospered 
greatly  in  their  new  homes.  Nor  did  they  forget  their 
duties  to  God.  As  far  as  possible  they  organized 
themselves  into  classes  and  kept  up  religious  services. 
At  the  time  of  which  I  am  writing  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  had  several  churches  and  about 
four  hundred  members  among  them.  But  they  needed 
reenforcement  in  many  ways,  and  especially  in  the 

118 


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DAVID    MORTON 


matter  of  a  suitable  ministry.  After  due  considera- 
tion Mr.  Morton  was  selected  by  the  bishops  concerned 
to  go  thither,  and  gave  his  consent.  He  was  ac- 
cordingly transferred  to  the  Denver  Conference,  which 
then  included  that  entire  region.  In  view  of  the  long 
and  difficult  journey,  he  concluded  to  go  alone  and 
leave  his  wife  and  children  to  follow  him  after  he 
should  have  surveyed  the  ground  and  provided  some 
sort  of  home  for  them.  To  a  man  of  his  strong  do- 
mestic instincts  it  was  not  easy  to  reach  this  conclu- 
sion, but  he  did  not  fully  realize  what  it  was  going  to 
cost  him  till  he  actually  found  himself  so  far  away 
from  his  loved  ones.  Then  his  sense  of  loneliness  at 
times  almost  overwhelmed  him. 

Crossing  the  plains  and  going  into  the  heart  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  is  nowadays  quite  a  commonplace 
matter.  Forty  years  ago,  however,  it  was  still  an  event 
in  a  man's  life,  especially  if  he  had  never  before  been 
a  great  traveler.  Mr.  Morton  took  it  very  seriously 
and  determined  to  make  the  most  of  it.  Starting  from 
home  on  August  17,  1876,  he  went  by  St.  Louis,  Kan- 
sas City,  and  Denver  to  Colorado  Springs,  where  he 
met  the  Denver  Conference,  presided  over  by  Bishop 
Marvin,  and  received  a  kindly  welcome  from  the  little 
band  who  were  outposts  on  the  far-flung  battle  line. 

After  the  Conference  was  over,  he  took  the  back 
track  to  Denver.     From  that  city  he  moved  on  by 

119 


DAVID    MORTON 


Cheyenne  and  Ogden  to  Salt  Lake  City,  spending  a 
Sunday  in  the  last-named  place  and  picking  up  about 
as  much  general  information  there  in  two  days  as  any 
other  traveler  did  that  ever  entered  the  place.  Return- 
ing to  Ogden,  a  short  distance  away,  he  took  a  narrow- 
gauge  railroad  to  Franklin,  Idaho,  which  was  quite  a 
novelty  to  him,  and  made  the  last  part  of  his  jour- 
ney to  Helena,  Montana,  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
on  a  stage.  I  do  not  feel  called  upon  to  apologize  to  my 
readers  for  reproducing  here  his  own  narrative  of  this 
wonderful  jaunt  through  Utah,  Idaho,  and  Montana. 
It  shows  what  a  close  and  intelligent  observer  he  was 
of  men  and  things : 

My  first  sight  of  a  narrow-gauge  road  prompted  an 
impulse  like  that  experienced  by  the  boy  when  he  first  saw 
a  steam  ferryboat — I  wanted  to  buy  it  and  take  it  along. 
These  roads  are  very  cute  and  comfortable,  make  about 
twenty  miles  an  hour,  and  are  admirably  suited  to  a  moun- 
tain country.  This  one  is  very  crooked,  winding  its  way 
around  the  mountains,  through  the  canyons,  and  over  the 
gorges,  gradually  ascending  till  the  terminus,  Franklin, 
about  eighty  miles  from  Ogden,  is  reached. 

Here  you  connect  with  a  line  of  stages,  the  best 
equipped  and  managed  I  have  ever  seen,  which  is  owned 
and  operated  by  Gilmer  &  Salisbury,  and  runs  direct  to 
Helena,  Montana,  a  distance  of  four  hundred  and  fifty 
miles.  There  are  connecting  lines  diverging  from  the 
main  one  at  different  points,  by  which  every  town  of  im- 
portance in  Montana  may  be  reached. 

The  old-fashioned  Concord  coaches,  to  which  we  were 

120 


DAVID    MORTON 


accustomed  in  our  boyhood,  were  used  for  a  time ;  but  they 
were  found  too  heavy  and  have  been  superseded  by  lighter 
wagons  made  especially  for  this  line.  One  size  of  these 
carries  nine  passengers  inside  and  three  on  top,  besides  the 
driver,  and  is  drawn  by  four  and  six  horses,  the  number 
of  horses  being  determined  by  the  size  of  the  load  and  the 
condition  of  the  road.  In  the  large  ''boots"  at  each  end 
of  the  wagon  and  on  top  an  amount  of  freight,  baggage, 
and  mail  matter,  perfectly  enormous,  is  carried.  The 
United  States  mail  for  all  Montana  and  all  the  travel 
done  by  public  conveyance,  except  what  goes  by  the  Mis- 
souri River  in  the  brief  boating  season,  is  taken  by  this 
line.  Besides,  the  Wells  and  Fargo  Express  Company 
does  all  its  business  through  it,  carrying  boxes,  bundles, 
kegs,  and  sacks  of  merchandise  and  "treasure,"  consisting 
of  coin,  currency,  gold  dust,  and  bullion.  Its  cargo  is 
usually  in  charge  of  "messengers,"  from  one  to  four,  as 
the  value  of  the  cargo  and  the  exigencies  of  the  particular 
part  of  the  route  require,  who  go  around  with  revolvers 
and  short  double-barreled  shotguns.  At  points  where  spe- 
cial danger  from  robbers  is  apprehended  the  road  is  pa- 
trolled by  other  messengers,  who  go  before  the  stage  on 
horseback. 

Each  passenger  is  limited  to  twenty-five  pounds  of 
baggage,  must  pay  twenty-five  cents  a  pound  for  all  in 
excess  of  this  weight,  and  must  "settle"  for  self,  about 
fourteen  cents  a  mile,  and  baggage  before  either  enters 
the  coach. 

I  did  not  fully  realize  my  obligation  to  Mr.  Gilmer,  the 
contractor,  whom  I  had  seen  at  Salt  Lake  City,  for  the 
pass  he  gave  me  until  I  found  that  it  passed  me  and  my 
baggage,  about  two  hundred  pounds,  over  the  whole  four 
hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

121 


DAVID    MORTON 


Six  German  hurdy-gurdy  dancers,  two  express  messen- 
gers, and  myself  made  up  our  complement  of  passen- 
gers. Two  of  the  women  spoke  a  little  broken  English, 
the  other  four  confining  themselves  to  their  own  vernacu- 
lar. One  of  the  messengers,  an  Irishman,  took  charge  of 
the  ladies  and  managed  to  keep  up  a  sort  of  desultory 
conversation,  very  like,  I  imagine,  that  of  the  Babel  build- 
ers just  after  the  confusion  of  their  tongues.  The  other 
messenger,  a  native  of  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  and  myself 
were  seated  together  and  soon  knew  each  other  pretty  well 
through  our  mutual  acquaintances.  I  found  him  a  com- 
panionable and  well-informed  man,  who  had  spent  many 
years  in  his  present  business,  and  who  gave  me  much 
valuable  information  about  the  country  and  the  people  of 
Montana. 

As  I  was  anxious  to  see  the  country,  I  spent  the  most 
of  the  day  out  with  the  drivers.  They  are  crude  fel- 
lows, using  somewhat  freely,  when  provoked  by  their 
teams,  pretty  vigorous  English ;  but  are  masters  of  their 
business,  faithful  to  their  employers,  and  careful  of  the 
comfort  and  convenience  of  the  passengers.  In  view  of 
the  hardships  they  endure,  the  risks  they  run,  and  the 
important  public  service  they  render,  I  have  always 
thought  that  stage  drivers  were  entitled  to  more  consid- 
eration than  they  receive. 

The  "stands,"  where  the  horses  are  changed,  are 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  miles  apart,  located  generally  in 
a  village  or  near  a  ranch,  but  sometimes  standing  all  alone 
in  a  great  plain  or  at  the  base  of  a  mountain.  The  stables 
are  built  of  logs,  which  form  sides,  ends,  and  tops,  the 
cracks  being  thoroughly  **chinked"  and  "daubed,"  and  the 
top  covered  with  dirt  to  the  depth  of  twelve  or  eighteen 
inches.     They  have  all  three  apartments — for  horses, 

122 


DAVID    MORTON 


grain,  and  "stock  tender" — and  are  very  comfortable  for 
man  and  beast,  being  warm  and  as  well  kept  as  a  city  liv- 
ery stable.  The  stock  tenders,  except  when  their  families 
live  with  them,  do  their  own  cooking  and  house  work 
and  are  well  fixed  for  plain  living.  The  provender  for 
the  stock  consists  of  grain,  usually  shelled  oats,  stored  in 
the  granary,  and  hay,  always  put  up  in  a  neat  stack  of 
novel  construction  just  outside  of  the  stable.  Wells  of 
water  supplied  with  good  pumps  are  in  nearly  every  sta- 
ble. The  horses  are  mostly  cayuses,  a  mixture  of  mustang 
pony  and  French  Canadian,  are  small  and  of  rather  shag- 
gy appearance,  but  very  hardy.  The  teams  are  changed 
at  every  stand ;  the  drivers,  about  every  twelve  hours.  To 
my  surprise,  the  traditional  stage  horn  was  not  seen  on  the 
entire  trip. 

The  road  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  clear  across 
the  territory  of  Idaho,  traverses  vast  plains  and  winds 
around  the  base  of  immense  mountains  and  follows  along 
the  banks  of  long  rivers  and  occasionally  crosses  a 
"range,"  conducting  you  through  the  most  barren  and 
doleful  region  I  have  ever  seen.  There  are  a  few  scat- 
tered settlements,  an  occasional  village  of  two  or  three 
families,  and  one  Indian  agency  on  this  part  of  the  route. 
It  is,  however,  strange  to  say,  a  fine  natural  road.  The 
bed  is  dry  and  gravelly,  the  grade  is  nowhere  steep,  the 
streams  are  bridged  or  have  beautiful  fords,  and  mud  or 
mire  is  unknown.  On  all  this  route  we  passed  no  hill  so 
difficult  of  ascent  as  Duncan*s  sand  hill,  on  the  Morgan- 
town  road,  nor  so  rough  and  rocky  as  the  old  Bowling 
Green  road  from  Poindexter's  to  Freeman's.  The  dust 
is  sometimes  annoying,  especially  in  the  Snake  River  Val- 
ley, and  several  other  places  where  it  is  so  strongly  im- 
pregnated with  alkali  as  to  give  the  ground  a  whitish  ap- 

123 


DAVID    MORTON 


pearance  and  to  be  very  unpleasant  when  inhaled  through 
mouth  or  nostrils.  The  weather  when  we  passed  was 
showery,  and  we  escaped  the  annoyance. 

After  entering  Montana,  about  two  hundred  miles  be- 
fore reaching  Helena,  the  country  is  better.  Numerous 
ranches  in  a  good  state  of  cultivation,  mining  towns,  and 
neat  villages  are  to  be  seen ;  and  the  timbered  mountains, 
all  green  with  forests  of  pine  and  cedar,  are  in  striking 
contrast  with  the  bleak  region  just  left  behind. 

At  the  end  of  eighty- four  hours  of  continued  staging 
you  find  yourself  in  Helena,  the  capital  and  metropolis  of 
Montana,  and  rejoice  that  the  journey  is  ended  and  won- 
der how  you  have  been  able  to  stand  such  a  ride  with 
irregular  meals  and  only  so  much  sleep  as  you  could 
catch  in  a  sitting  posture  within  a  closely  packed  coach 
all  the  while  in  motion. 

Mr.  Morton  had  received  from  the  bishop  in  charge 
a  rather  wide  commission.  To  begin  with,  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Church  at  Helena,  a  task  which  by  itself 
was  enough  to  occupy  the  time  of  a  full-grown  man. 
The  congregation  w-as  not  large,  but  it  embraced  some 
of  the  best  citizens  of  the  place,  and  there  was  hope 
that  with  due  diligence  it  might  increase  at  least  to  the 
point  of  full  self-support.  To  the  local  pastorate  was 
added  the  presiding  eldership  of  the  district,  which 
covered  a  territory  much  larger  than  that  of  most  of 
the  Annual  Conferences  and  which  it  was  necessary  to 
travel  either  on  horseback  or  by  wheeled  vehicle. 

That  any  man  could  do  all  the  work  that  needed  to 
124 


DAVID    MORTON 


be  done  in  so  immense  an  area  was  out  of  the  question. 
But  Mr.  Morton  did  all  that  lay  within  his  power,  and 
that  was  more  than  most  men  would  have  done.  After 
looking  over  Helena  and  getting  his  bearings  there,  a 
work  in  which  he  was  exceedingly  diligent,  he  started 
on  his  first  round  through  the  district.  I  shall  again 
let  him  tell  his  own  story : 

A  trip  of  three  weeks,  involving  nearly  four  hundred 
miles  of  travel  by  coach,  to  the  "West  Side" — meaning 
the  settled  part  of  Montana  west  of  Helena — ^gave  me  the 
opportunity  of  seeing  some  of  the  best  farming  country 
and  some  of  the  most  picturesque  portions  of  the  terri- 
tory. 

Leaving  Helena  at  6:30  a.m.  on  a  bright  day,  we  were 
driven,  in  a  little  over  an  hour,  across  one  edge  of  the 
Prickly  Pear  Valley  and  through  a  narrow  canyon,  a  dis- 
tance of  eleven  miles,  to  the  base  of  the  main  range  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  Here  it  was  politely  suggested  by  the 
driver  that  he  would  be  glad  for  us  to  "give  him  a  lift," 
by  which  he  meant  that  he  would  like  for  us  to  walk  up 
the  mountain  side;  and,  not  waiting  till  the  horses  were 
changed,  we  started  on,  leaving  him  to  follow  when 
ready.  The  road  is  an  artificial  one,  having  been  graded 
by  a  stock  company  that  charges  toll.  It  winds  around 
the  mountain,  gradually  ascending  for  four  miles,  and 
conducting  you  to  the  summit  at  an  elevation  of  several 
thousand  feet  above  the  base.  The  driver  did  not  hurry, 
and  we  walked  to  the  top.  My  legs,  though  more  heavily 
taxed  than  some  men's,  met  the  demand  by  being  rested 
occasionally  and  assured  me  that  they  were  acting  nobly 
in  favoring  the  poor  horses. 

125 


DAVID    MORTON 


The  road,  for  the  most  part,  runs  through  a  dense 
forest  of  pine  trees  with  an  occasional  glade,  whence  you 
have  a  magnificent  view  of  the  valley  below  and  of  the 
towering  peaks  above.  The  walk,  taken  altogether,  is  in- 
spiring. A  man  who  had  any  poetry  in  him  would,  per- 
haps, have  indited  a  few  stanzas;  but  as  I  non  nascior 
poeta,  it  inspired  me  chiefly  with  thirst,  which  I  relieved 
with  the  aid  of  my  leather  cup  at  the  mountain  streams, 
which  here  and  there  dashed  along  the  roadside. 

Just  at  the  summit  we  met  a  party  of  Flathead  In- 
dians— men,  women,  and  children — ^mounted  on  ponies 
and  carrying  their  camp  equipage  on  pack  horses,  which 
were  driven  ahead  by  the  women  and  children.  They 
gazed  and  grinned  and  jabbered  at  us  for  a  little  while 
and  were  soon  out  of  sight  down  the  mountain  side,  gone 
on  their  annual  buffalo  hunt. 

Our  coachman  was  in  a  fine  humor  toward  us  for  hav- 
ing walked  all  the  way  up  and  gave  us  an  exhilarating 
drive  down  the  other  side  and  through  a  beautiful  little 
valley  to  the  "stand,"  where  we  had  a  capital  dinner, 
served  by  a  very  pleasant  lady,  whose  deaf  husband 
seemed  to  take  no  interest  in  anything  but  collecting  one 
dollar  each  from  the  passengers  for  what  had  been  eaten. 

The  afternoon  ride  of  about  ten  miles  over  the  Dog 
Creek  Hills,  a  succession  of  low,  bare,  rugged  mountains, 
is  neither  inspiring  nor  exhilarating.  Every  poetic  im- 
pulse engendered  by  the  morning's  trip  is  effectually  sup- 
pressed by  the  ten  miles.  You  can  neither  see  whence  you 
come  nor  whither  you  are  going  and  feel  for  all  the 
world  that  you  are  about  to  be  smothered  in  a  forest  of 
big  potato  hills.  The  last  ten  miles  of  the  day's  ride, 
however,  is  down  a  gently  inclined  plain,  which  lands 
you  at  the  beautiful  little  town  of  Deer  Lodge,  on  Deer 

126 


DAVID    MORTON 


Lodge  River.  This  is  every  way  the  prettiest  and 
most  pleasant  town  I  have  seen  in  Montana.  The  site 
is  level,  streets  wide  and  regularly  laid  out,  houses  neat, 
yards  inviting.  It  has  four  or  five  hundred  intelligent, 
refined,  social,  and  pleasant  people,  many  of  whom  are 
Kentuckians. 

From  the  town  you  go  down  the  Deer  Lodge  River, 
over  the  Yam  Hills  and  Flint  Creek  Hills,  a  duplicate  of 
Dog  Creek  Hills,  for  about  fifty  miles,  passing  several 
mining  camps,  attractive  only  for  the  gold,  which  is 
found  in  large,  remunerative  amounts,  till  at  McCarty's 
Bridge  you  enter  Hellgate  Canyon.  This  canyon  severs 
one  of  the  main  ranges  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  twain 
and  furnishes  an  outlet  for  the  Hellgate  River.  It  is 
nowhere  over  a  mile  wide,  and  in  many  places  the  moun- 
tains come  to  the  water's  edge.  Through  this  pass  the 
United  States  government  has  constructed  a  military 
road  forty  miles  in  length,  which  in  many  places  is  liter- 
ally hewn  out  of  the  mountains  and  which  is  the  great 
emigrant  route  to  Oregon  and  the  only  post  road  in  all 
this  region — in  fact,  the  only  road  over  which  a  vehicle  of 
any  kind  can  pass.  In  many  places  the  road,  which 
averages  about  ten  feet  in  width,  is  so  steep  that  the 
teams  ascend  it  with  great  difficulty  and  go  down  with 
almost  railroad  speed.  On  one  side  it  is  walled  in  by 
the  mountains,  and  on  the  other  are  precipices,  almost 
perpendicular,  from  ten  to  three  hundred  feet  high. 

I  entered  the  canyon  with  the  toothache,  which  soon 
assumed  the  form  of  an  aggravated  attack  of  neuralgia, 
extending  throughout  the  head  and  entire  spinal  column 
and  consigning  me  to  a  night  of  fearful  torture,  which  I 
endured  as  best  I  could  on  a  small,  hard  bed  in  an  open 
room  without  fire. 

127 


DAVID    MORTON 


At  the  lower  end  of  this  pass  is  the  pleasant,  pretty 
little  town  of  Missoula,  where  I  spent  with  kind  friends 
a  delightful  Sabbath.  The  people  of  Missoula  have  built 
a  neat  little  church,  but  have  no  preacher  and  enjoy  great- 
ly the  ministrations  of  the  itinerants  who  occasionally 
visit  them.  I  will  cheerfully  go  again  through  the  can- 
yon to  meet  the  kind  and  appreciative  people. 

From  Missoula  I  turned  south  and  went  up  the  Bitter 
Root  Valley  forty-five  miles  to  Corvallis,  where  we  held 
a  quarterly  meeting  with  the  largest  Southern  Methodist 
congregation  in  Montana.  This  valley  is  about  ten  miles 
wide  and  lies  on  both  sides  of  the  Bitter  Root  River,  a 
clear  stream  about  two  hundred  yards  wide,  skirted  on 
either  bank  for  most  of  its  length  by  pine  groves  of  sur- 
passing loveliness.  The  land  is  very  fertile  and  the  cli- 
mate milder  than  any  other  in  Montana,  and  hence  a 
greater  variety  of  farm  products  is  raised  here  than  any- 
where else. 

The  return  trip  over  the  same  route  we  had  gone  was 
made  without  noticeable  occurrence,  except  that  we  en- 
countered in  the  Dog  Creek  Hills  a  regular  mountain 
snowstorm,  which  brought  the  thermometer  below  zero 
for  about  an  hour,  but  gave  us  very  little  inconvenience, 
as  we  were  in  a  closely  curtained  stage  and  were  well 
wrapped  in  warm  clothing  and  large  buffalo  robes.  On 
the  range  the  storm  had  abated ;  but  the  snow  was  about 
a  foot  deep,  and  we  were  glad  enough  to  find  ourselves 
at  8  P.M.  in  the  warm  dining  room  of  the  Cosmopolitan 
Hotel,  in  Helena,  with  a  smoking  supper  on  the  table. 

In  the  course  of  the  year  Mr.  Morton  not  only  vis- 
ited every  congregation  of  Southern  Methodists  in  the 
Territory,  but  was  a  guest  in  nearly  every  Methodist 

128 


DAVID    MORTON 


home.  Nor  did  he  confine  his  labors  to  his  own  people. 
While  anything  but  a  proselyter,  he  felt  it  his  duty  to 
carry  the  gospel  to  everybody  that  needed  it  and  was 
willing  to  receive  it  at  his  hands.  His  evangelistic 
zeal  took  him  into  many  communities  in  which  there 
was  no  Methodist  organization  and  few,  if  any,  Meth- 
odists. Before  the  year  was  out,  he  knew  Montana  as 
well  as  any  man  could  learn  it  in  so  short  a  time.  In- 
cidentally, he  was  elected  chaplain  of  the  Montana  State 
Senate  and  served  that  body  much  to  the  satisfaction 
of  its  members  during  the  whole  session.  The  proba- 
bility is  that  the  most  of  them  were  Democrats  and 
more  or  less  constrained  to  vote  for  him  by  partisan 
considerations;  but,  for  all  that,  they  would  not  have 
chosen  him,  newcomer  as  he  was,  had  he  not  possessed 
uncommonly  attractive  qualities.  If  he  had  been  a  pol- 
itician, it  would  have  been  difficult  to  defeat  him  in  any 
contest  before  a  mixed  constituency. 

With  L.  B.  Stateler,  E.  J.  Stanley,  and  the  few 
other  preachers  that  labored  alongside  of  him  he  be- 
came affectionately  intimate ;  and  with  such  laymen  as 
A.  G.  Clarke,  J.  R.  Boyce,  and  Abram  H.  Collett  his 
relations  were  equally  close.  If  the  fruit  of  his  toil  did 
not  at  once  appear,  it  showed  itself  largely  in  later 
years.  First  and  last,  and  largely  as  the  direct  or  indi- 
rect result  of  influences  that  he  set  to  going,  the  little 
Montana  Conference  has  put  nearly  fifty  thousand  dol- 
9  3:29 


DAVID    MORTON 


lars  into  the  permanent  funds  of  the  Church  Extension 
Board.  Though  circumstances  forced  him  to  return 
East  in  May,  1877,  he  left  his  tracks  behind  him  and 
retained  a  strong  and  permanent  grip  on  the  good  will 
of  the  people  with  whom  he  had  been  associated.  He 
also  kept  in  his  heart  a  warm  place  for  them.  At  least 
four  times  in  the  course  of  his  subsequent  career  he 
paid  them  lengthy  visits,  always  with  great  joy  to 
himself  and  to  them. 

At  the  session  of  the  Conference  which  met  in  the 
city  of  Denver  in  August,  1877,  though  he  had  publicly 
announced  his  purpose  to  ask  for  a  retransfer  to  the 
East,  he  was  elected  with  virtual  unanimity  to  repre- 
sent the  body  in  the  General  Conference  which  was  to 
meet  in  Atlanta  in  May,  1878.  His  brethren  rightly 
judged  that  no  other  man  among  them  could  serve 
their  interests  so  well  as  he  in  the  supreme  legislature 
of  the  Church. 

In  his  *'Life  of  L.  B.  Stateler,"  Rev.  E.  J.  Stanley 
speaks  of  Dr.  Morton's  work  in  Montana  as  follows: 
"He  was  wise  in  planning,  prompt  and  energetic  in 
execution,  and  careful  in  looking  after  the  details — the 
little  things,  so  called — of  life.  By  his  wisely  directed 
efforts  the  last  installment  of  the  debt  that  had  hung  as 
a  mighty  incubus  over  the  church  building  in  Helena 
so  long  was  paid  off,  although  he  rented  the  audience 
room  overhead  to  the  State  legislature  during  one  of 

130 


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DAVID    MORTON 


its  sessions  for  a  handsome  sum,  while  he  roomed  and 
preached  in  the  basement  in  order  to  do  so.  It  was  of 
this  experience  that  he  remarked  humorously  to  his 
friends  that  *a  Methodist  preacher  with  hell  beneath 
his  feet  and  a  Montana  legislature  between  him  and 
heaven  was  surely  in  a  precarious  position.'  " 

When  Mr.  Morton  got  back  to  Kentucky,  he  was  ap- 
pointed educational  agent  for  one  year ;  and  in  the  fall 
of  1878  he  was  sent  to  Elkton  Circuit,  which  he  had 
served  under  such  difficult  conditions  during  the  war 
and  of  which,  in  spite  of  a  few  disagreeable  incidents, 
he  cherished  always  the  most  pleasant  memories.  This 
time  there  was  nothing  in  his  way.  The  bitter  feelings 
engendered  by  the  war  had  all  abated.  His  old  friends 
rallied  to  his  help,  and  new  ones  multiplied  about  him. 
In  every  particular  he  had  a  good  year ;  and  as  far  as 
the  wishes  of  the  circuit  were  concerned,  he  could  have 
stayed  on  indefinitely.  But  there  was  a  larger  work 
for  him  to  do,  and  the  Church  could  scarcely  afford  to 
spare  him  from  more  difficult  and  important  service. 

At  the  end  of  1879,  the  Louisville  District  being 
open,  Mr.  Morton  was  sent  thither  as  presiding  elder. 
The  feeling  had  become  general  that  he  was  equal  to 
the  largest  responsibilities  that  his  Conference  offered, 
and  nobody  was  surprised  when  he  was  singled  out  and 
set  over  the  metropolitan  district.  The  results  fully 
vindicated  the  wisdom  of  the  appointment.     He  had 

131 


DAVID    MORTON 


never  before  failed  to  measure  up  to  any  opportunity 
that  the  Church  had  given  him,  and  he  did  not  do  so 
now.  In  the  city  as  v\^ell  as  in  the  country  he  showed 
the  gifts  of  a  wise  leader  and  administrator.  One  of 
his  best  friends  says : 

The  years  on  this  district  were  years  of  hard  work 
planning  for  the  future  needs  of  Methodism  in  a  great 
and  growing  city.  He  seemed  to  have  almost  a  prophetic 
judgment  of  the  course  to  pursue;  and  now,  thirty  years 
later,  the  wisdom  of  his  policies  is  fully  shown. 

Louisville  became  a  sort  of  second  home  to  him, 
taking  a  place  in  his  affections  similar  to  that  which 
Russellville  had  long  held.  It  was  not  a  great  while  till 
he  was  widely  acquainted  with  all  classes  of  its  citizen- 
ship, from  the  lowest  to  the  highest.  His  breadth  of 
spirit  was  well  illustrated  by  the  range  of  friendship 
which  he  formed  with  the  ministers  of  all  the  Churches, 
Protestant  and  Catholic.  Nor  did  he  stop  there.  He 
drew  to  him  the  most  distinguished  lawyers,  politi- 
cians, doctors,  men  of  letters,  editors,  and  reporters 
and  became  the  friend  and  almost  the  chum  of  the 
newsboys  and  the  bootblacks.  In  the  course  of  time  it 
came  to  pass  that  he  could  scarcely  pass  along  a  street 
without  being  accosted  by  somebody  that  had  a  pleas- 
ant word  to  say  to  him.  I  once  went  with  him  around 
the  public  places  and  buildings  of  the  city  and  was 
amazed  to  find  him  on  the  most  easy  and  agreeable 

132 


DAVID    MORTON 


terms  with  so  many  different  sorts  of  people.  Among 
other  resorts  to  which  he  took  me  was  the  Filson  Club, 
headquarters  of  the  Kentucky  Historical  Society. 
While  there  he  conversed  with  Col.  R.  T.  Durrett, 
famous  among  all  Kentuckians  for  his  historical  re- 
searches, and  showed  a  minuteness  of  acquaintance 
with  all  matters  of  State  tradition  and  history  that  was 
truly  surprising.  I  have  heard,  moreover,  that  he  could 
hobnob  on  equal  and  easy  terms  with  Henry  Watterson 
himself.  I  doubt,  in  fact,  if  he  would  not  have  been 
welcomed  as  an  acquaintance  and  friend  by  almost  any 
man  of  ability  and  character  in  the  commonwealth. 

It  was  while  Mr.  Morton  was  presiding  elder  of  the 
Louisville  District  that  another  great  honor  came  to 
him.  Though  the  matter  had  been  talked  .about  here 
and  there  for  many  years,  it  was  not  till  1881  that  the 
first  Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  was  actually 
convened  in  City  Road  Church,  London,  England.  In 
the  eyes  of  Methodist  people  throughout  the  world,  it 
attracted  great  attention.  Thirty-eight  of  the  three 
hundred  delegates  were  assigned  to  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South,  and  these  were  to  be  named  by  the 
College  of  Bishops.  The  following  letter,  of  date  July 
I,  1880,  from  Bishop  H.  N.  McTyeire,  will  be  read 
with  interest.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  writer  and 
shows  in  what  respect  Mr.  Morton  was  held  by  him 
and  his  colleagues : 

133 


DAVID   MORTON 


Dear  Brother  Morton:  Among  the  "thirty-eight,"  the 
CoU^^  of  Bishops  have  named  you  as  a  delegate  to  the 
Eaimettical  Conference.  You  were  very  generous  in  rec- 
ommending many  of  your  brethren,  clerical  and  lay,  for 
this  duty  and  honor.  They  are  such  men  as  approve  your 
good  judgment.  But  the  bishops  took  you  and  said  that 
you  must  get  ready  to  go  and  answer  when  the  roll  call 
of  Universal  Methodism  is  made  at  City  Road.  It  gives 
me  very  great  pleasure  to  give  you  this  notice  of  your 
election,  and  I  trust  that  I  shall  soon  receive  your  formal 
acceptance  of  your  appointment. 

Yours  very  truly, 

H.  N.  McTyeire. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  any  single  event  in  Mr.  Mor- 
ton's life  ever  brought  him  greater  satisfaction  than 
this  invitation  to  cross  the  sea  and  foregather  with  his 
brethren  from  the  different  parts  of  the  world.  The 
voyage  itself  was  somewhat  tempestuous,  especially  on 
the  return  trip,  but  there  were  no  other  drawbacks. 
The  large  number  of  new  and  delightful  acquaintances 
which  he  formed,  the  strange  and  unfamiliar  scenes  of 
the  Old  World,  and  the  proceedings  of  the  Conference 
itself,  all  served  to  enlarge  and  enrich  his  mind  and 
furnish  him  with  a  store  of  material  to  be  dra\vn  upon 
by  his  memory  in  future  years.  Whatever  the  other 
delegates  got  from  it.  the  whole  occasion,  he  certainly 
got  much.  On  his  return  home  he  was  asked  by  the 
Ministers*  Association  of  Louisville  to  deliver  a  formal 
address  before  that  body  on  the  Conference  and  con- 

134 


DAVID    MORTON 


nected  themes.  He  complied  with  the  request,  speak- 
ing for  more  than  an  hour.  Even  now  it  is  possible 
to  read  the  printed  report  of  his  remarks  with  great 
interest.  He  was  a  profoundly  serious  man,  but  always 
with  his  seriousness  there  was  a  keen  and  delicious 
humor  that  rarely  failed  to  see  everything  that  was 
ludicrous  or  amusing  in  a  situation.  A  few  paragraphs 
may  well  be  inserted  here  to  illustrate  what  I  mean. 
Inter  alia,  he  said : 

While  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  program  was  per- 
fect, it  will  not  be  denied  that  it  embraced  a  wide  range 
of  important  topics  directly  connected  with  the  most  vital 
interests  of  Methodism  and  of  Christianity,  whose  consid- 
eration will  set  in  motion  influences  that  will  be  felt  here- 
after. 

Some  of  these  essays  are  very  able  and  will  be  read 
and  reread  in  the  printed  volumes  of  the  transactions  of 
the  Conference  and  take  rank  among  the  best  State  papers 
of  the  Church.  Others  will  attract  less  attention.  Many 
of  the  invited  speeches  were  very  good,  while  others  went 
wide  of  the  mark. 

Among  the  best  productions  of  the  Conference  were 
some  of  the  volunteer  speeches,  but  the  authors  of 
these  and  their  friends  will  be  sorry  to  see  them  in 
print.  In  these  speeches  will  be  found  certain  anachro- 
nisms which  will  both  surprise  and  amuse.  They  came 
about  thus:  One  would  make  a  desperate  effort  to  get 
the  floor  to-day  and  fail,  but  would  succeed  to-morrow 
and  make  a  speech  on  the  topic  of  yesterday.  These  made 
me  think  of  the  cab  driver  who,  in  trying  to  find  for  me 
the  place  of  Mr.  Wesley's  conversion,  insisted  that  he  was 

I3S 


DAVID    MORTON 


"the  gentleman  brought  in  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association"  and  that  their  hall  was  the  place  I  wished 
to  see. 

The  Conference  was  presided  over  by  a  different  man 
each  day,  no  one  being  in  the  chair  oftener  than  once. 
This  circumstance  and  the  size  of  the  body  made  the 
presidency  no  easy  task;  for  who  in  a  day's  time  could 
possibly  so  learn  three  hundred  names  as  properly  to  rec- 
ognize the  speakers  ?  And  when  there  was  such  a  contest 
for  the  floor  this  was  an  important  item. 

The  difficulty  suggested  the  rule  requiring  each  speaker 
to  call  his  own  name  and  state  his  Church  relations  on 
gaining  the  floor.  The  audience  would  smile  audibly 
whenever  the  well-known  and  distinguished  ex-President 
of  the  British  Conference  would  rise  and  gravely  say: 
"My  name  is  Jenkins,  and  I  belong  to  the  Wesleyan  Meth- 
odist Church." 

Great  confusion  in  calling  and  printing  names  occurred 
in  spite  of  all  precautions.  One  of  the  ablest  essays  sub- 
mitted was  credited  to  an  eminent  American  professor 
instead  of  to  the  excellent  English  brother  by  whom  it 
was  read.  A  capital  speech  made  by  my  friend,  the  Hon. 
Thomas  Moorman,  of  South  Carolina,  was  generously 
placed  to  my  account. 

Bishop  McTyeire  was  the  victim  of  all  sorts  of  mis- 
nomers, being  successively  called  Bishop  Holland,  Bishop 
Tyeire,  Bishop  McLean,  and  announced  from  South 
America  and  the  South  American  States.  One  plain 
layman  at  least  was  set  down  as  a  reverend  and  assigned 
to  pulpit  duty  on  the  Conference  Sunday.  An  announce- 
ment of  an  after  meeting  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne  gravely 
stated  that  among  the  speakers  were  Rev.  G.  R.  Crooks 
and   Prof.   Drew   Timany,  and   some  of  the  Wesleyan 

136 


n  mne  i  \b  'fmi-]  ra  ^\  n  i5w  r 

^     ^''AX1)150()K.- 

.OF   ^  H  !•:      '     •  kX    i  ■ 

:  :\\l'yM(vU4  jVl -KTIH  )1)  I  ST 


h 


First  Ecumenical  Conference 
A  fac  simile  of  the  title  page  of  the  Program  of  the  first  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference held  in  London  in  1881.  The  upper  house  is  City  Roard  Chapel  where 
this  Conference  met.  The  lower  house  is  the  Foundry.  David  Morton  was 
sent  to  this  Conference  as  a  delegate  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South. 


DAVID    MORTON 


brethren  are  inquiring  who  Brother  Timany  is  and  have 
found  out  that  he  is  a  theological  institution  in  New 
Jersey. 

Great  deference  is  paid  among  the  Wesleyans  to  age 
and  position,  large  liberty  in  debate  and  other  special 
privileges  being  accorded  to  the  seniors  and  doctors,  and 
this  spirit  soon  manifested  itself  in  the  Conference.  The 
current  which  had  strongly  set  in  that  direction  met  a 
sudden  check  in  the  rulings  of  Bishop  Peck,  who  enforced 
inflexibly  the  rule  limiting  the  time  of  the  speakers  and 
established  a  precedent  which  was  adhered  to  for  the 
rest  of  the  session.  Some  laughable  stops  were  the  re- 
sult. One  venerable  and  distinguished  brother  begged 
piteously  for  five  minutes  more  to  finish  the  essay  which 
had  been  for  months  in  preparation,  but  was  reminded 
that  ''his  ample  and  lengthened  experience  would  enable 
him  to  set  an  example  which  all  should  follow'' ;  while 
another,  who  was  cut  short  in  the  middle  of  a  word,  was 
told  that  ''his  words  were  so  weighty  as  to  be  susceptible 
of  division  without  detriment."  Still  another,  who  was 
in  the  midst  of  a  grave  discussion,  had  just  announced 
the  sentence,  "Here  we  meet  a  barrier,"  and  was  seated  so 
suddenly  by  the  bell  that  a  roar  of  laughter  convulsed 
the  Conference. 

One  of  the  most  touching  episodes  of  the  Conference 
was  the  presentation  by  Bishop  McTyeire  of  the  letter  of 
Samuel  Checote,  the  Indian  presiding  elder  of  the  Musko- 
gee Nation,  who,  though  appointed  a  delegate,  was  unable 
to  come  and  wrote.  The  letter  was  a  remarkable  paper 
and  well  deserves  the  place  it  will  fill  in  the  Conference 
proceedings,  but  is  especially  interesting  as  emanating 
from  a  descendant  of  the  race  and  of  the  very  tribe  to 
preach  to  whom  the  Wesleys  crossed  over  the  seas.    The 

137 


DAVID    MORTON 


white  man,  the  black  man,  the  yellow  man,  the  brown 
man  had  been  heard  from ;  and  now  the  red  man  sends  a 
feeble  but  lutelike  note  across  the  great  waters  "to  thank 
God  that  the  Indians  were  among  the  number  greatly 
benefited  by  Methodism." 

Throughout  the  Conference  the  colored  delegates  re- 
ceived marked  attention.  It  is  said  that  they  were  asked 
for  in  advance  as  guests  by  the  best  families;  and  it  is 
certain  that  they  were  entertained  in  fine  style,  the  most 
perfect  social  equality  being  accorded  them  on  all  occa- 
sions. By  the  rules  of  the  Conference  they  had  an  ex- 
actly even  chance  with  the  rest  of  us,  but  with  the  galleries 
and  lobby  they  were  clearly  above  par.  Whenever  one  of 
them  spoke,  or  tried  to  do  so,  there  was  no  mistaking  the 
wishes  of  the  audience  that  he  should  be  heard;  and 
several  times,  when  favorites  seemed  desirous  to  remain 
silent,  they  were  compelled  to  talk.  In  the  main,  their 
speeches  were  sensible,  conciliatory,  and  in  good  taste. 
Some  were  sprightly  and  others  really  able. 

To  my  mind,  there  was  no  clearer  nor  more  forcible 
statement  of  "the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter"  than 
that  contained  in  the  speech  of  Mr.  Arthur,  delivered  on 
the  last  day  of  the  session.  He  said :  "People  think  that 
nothing  particularly  practical  is  being  done  in  the  Ecu- 
menical Conference.  They  are  only  in  the  engine  house, 
where  there  is  not  a  spool  being  spun  and  not  a  web  be- 
ing woven  and  not  a  single  tissue  being  dyed.  There  is 
nothing  being  done  but  generating  power,  and  therefore 
there  is  nothing  practical  being  done.  Sir,  below  the  sky 
the  two  most  practical  things  are  human  thought  and  hu- 
man feeling,  and  what  you  have  been  doing  here  is  mak- 
ing large  thoughts  and  holy  feelings;  and  what  is  prac- 
tically being  done  is  that  the  large  man  is  becoming  larger 

138 


DAVID    MORTON 


and  the  small  man  is  becoming  less  small,  that  here  the 
broad  man  is  becoming  broader  and  the  narrow  man  less 
narrow,  and  that  here  the  lonely  and  isolated  preacher  is, 
somehow  or  other,  being  unconsciously  attracted  to  others 
so  that,  after  all,  he  feels  that  they  are  more  like  him  than 
he  thought  they  could  be.  That  is  the  practical  thing. 
And  what  will  come  out  of  it?  Neither  you  nor  I,  sir, 
can  tell,  not  the  longest  head  here  can  tell,  not  the  wisest 
body  here  can  tell  what  will  come  out  of  it.  God  knows 
what  will  come  out  of  it.  Good  will  come  out  of  it ;  the 
glory  of  God  will  come  out  of  it ;  peace  among  men  will 
come  out  of  it;  new  power  to  preach  Christ  will  come  out 
of  it ;  new  consciousness  that  we  are  working  with  breth- 
ren and  among  brethren  will  come  out  of  it ;  free  union 
to  scattered  branches  will  come  out  of  it.  Let  it  come 
naturally  and  quietly." 

Mr.  Morton  had  a  high  sense  of  the  value  of  history 
and  of  the  debt  we  owe  to  those  who  have  lived  and 
worked  in  the  past.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  student  in 
genealogy  and  preserved  with  great  care  the  records  of 
his  ancestors.  Not  only  so,  but  his  addresses  and 
funeral  sermons  abound  with  biographical  data  of  the 
most  valuable  kind.  He  was  a  collector  of  rare  his- 
torical books,  which  he  prized  highly.  For  many  years 
he  was  an  active  member  of  the  Filson  Club,  of  Louis- 
ville, which  is  much  more  than  the  historical  society  of 
Kentucky,  as  it  has  labored  in  the  field  concerned  with 
the  pioneer  history  of  the  South  and  the  Middle  West. 
The  original  documents  in  the  possession  of  this  soci- 
ety are  priceless.    Mr.  Morton  was  the  founder  of  the 

139 


DAVID    MORTON 


Historical  Society  of  the  Louisville  Conference.  He 
spent  many  years  and  considerable  money  in  the  col- 
lection of  complete  sets  of  the  Discipline,  of  the  Jour- 
nals of  the  General  Conferences,  of  the  Minutes  of  the 
Louisville  Conference,  and  of  other  historical  records 
of  American  Methodism.  Of  his  work  in  this  connec- 
tion, Dr.  Gross  Alexander  has  written  thus : 

He  had  the  greatest  reverence  for  the  self-denying  men 
and  women  who  wrought  for  us  in  the  past  and  who 
handed  down  to  us  the  rich  heritage  which  we  enjoy  in 
the  present.  He  felt  that  their  names  should  be  rescued 
from  oblivion  and  held  in  grateful  remembrance  and 
honor.  He  discerned  that  the  existence  of  such  a  society, 
with  its  systematic  work  of  research,  would  furnish  the 
most  effective  guarantee  of  the  collection  and  preserva- 
tion of  the  facts,  processes,  and  lessons  of  our  past  his- 
tory. And  already  his  wisdom  has  been  justified  in  the 
interest  we  are  now  taking  in  our  past  history  and  in  all 
the  records,  reminiscences,  and  relics  which  bear  upon  it. 
Shortly  before  his  death  he  thought  we  needed  two  large 
iron  safes,  one  for  the  archives  of  the  Conference  and 
one  for  the  papers  and  treasures  of  the  Conference  His- 
torical Society.  Nobody  saw  where  these  expensive  arti- 
cles were  to  come  from  or  how  they  were  to  be  gotten. 
But  he  set  his  head,  went  to  work,  and  soon  the  safes 
were  bought,  paid  for,  and  in  place. 

The  business  sagacity  of  David  Morton  was  recog- 
nized by  his  fellow  preachers  during  his  entire  minis- 
try, and  he  was  constantly  called  upon  to  financier  the 
enterprises  of  the  Conference.     Among  these  was  the 

140 


DAVID    MORTON 


Preachers'  Aid  Society  of  the  Louisville  Conference. 
This  society  had  for  its  object  the  financial  aid  of  its 
worn-out  members  who  had  seen  a  lifetime  of  hard 
service  and  at  the  end  of  their  careers  were  unable  to 
provide  for  themselves.  A  fund  was  created  and  the 
interest  therefrom  used  for  this  purpose,  the  principal 
never  being  touched.  This  was  a  sacred  trust.  The 
management  of  this  money  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
David  Morton;  and  his  letter  of  resignation,  which 
follows,  shows  how  faithfully  it  was  executed : 

I  was  elected  the  Treasurer  of  your  society  in  October, 
1864,  and  have  held  the  office  by  reelection  continuously 
since,  with  the  exception  of  the  year  1876-77,  when  I  was 
a  member  of  the  Denver  Conference.  At  the  time  of  my 
election  the  entire  assets  of  the  society  consisted  of  two 
notes  on  hand,  amounting  to  the  sum  of  $2,646.90.  To 
this  capital  we  have  added  during  these  twenty-one  years 
by  one  legacy,  $894.88 ;  by  annual  subscriptions  of  mem- 
bers, $2,997.10;  by  anniversary  collections,  $2,899.50;  and 
by  a  few  special  donations  and  by  reinvestment  of  inter- 
est until  the  capital  at  present  amounts  to  $16,375.25.  No 
loss  of  capital  has  ever  been  sustained  except  on  four 
Muhlenberg  County  bonds  of  $100  each,  which  cost  $320 
and  were  sold  for  $145.55,  entailing  a  loss  of  $174.45. 
There  has  been  disbursed  to  claimants  during  this  time 
$8,613.85.  This  showing  not  only  sets  forth  what  has 
been  done,  but  indicates  what  may  be  accomplished  by  a 
steady  adherence  to  the  methods  which  have  heretofore 
been  pursued  by  the  society.  If  to  these  plans  for  raising 
money  some  other  plan  could  be  added,  simple  and  inex- 

141 


DAVID    MORTON 


pensive,  by  which  the  matter  could  be  regularly  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  Church  at  large  in  our  bounds,  a 
much  more  rapid  increase  of  capital  might  be  accom- 
plished. If  the  members  of  our  Church  were  only  in- 
formed as  to  what  we  have  done  and  what  we  propose, 
we  feel  sure  that  many  would  gladly  give  to  this  cause  of 
which  they  have  not  so  much  as  heard.  I  feel  deeply 
grateful  to  the  society  for  the  confidence  it  has  so  long 
reposed  in  me  by  electing  me  twenty-one  times  to  the 
most  responsible  position  at  its  disposal ;  but  in  view  of 
my  connectional  work,  with  which  the  duties  of  this  place 
to  some  extent  interfere,  and  actuated  by  a  desire  to  be 
relieved  of  the  graver  responsibilities  which  the  office  of 
Treasurer  imposes,  I  respectfully  tender  my  resignation 
as  your  Treasurer  and  request  your  immediate  acceptance 
of  the  same. 

142 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
Church  Extension  Secretary. 

MR.  MORTON  was  sent  to  Montana  in  1876  by 
the  bishops,  as  stated  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  needs  of  the  Church  in 
the  Northwest,  as  well  as  the  outlook  for  its  future  in 
that  important  and  rapidly  developing  pioneer  section 
of  the  United  States.  Thither  had  gone  many  South- 
ern people,  hoping  to  regain  in  this  new  country  their 
fortunes  lost  by  the  vicissitudes  of  war.  Many  of  them 
were  Methodists  and  had  organized  Sunday  schools  and 
Churches  and  were  appealing  to  the  mother  Church  to 
send  over  into  Macedonia  and  help  them.  It  was  in- 
tended that  Mr.  Morton,  as  a  result  of  his  observations, 
should  report  what  Church  policy  was  advisable,  re- 
tirement from  the  field  or  a  more  extended  occupation. 
His  decision  was  for  the  latter,  and  from  it  he  never 
swerved  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  not  only 
advocated  this  policy,  but,  as  usual  with  him  when 
convinced  of  the  righteousness  of  a  cause,  pointed  out 
a  constructive  plan  by  which  it  could  be  made  possible. 
Among  other  things  necessary  to  be  done,  he  main- 
tained that  the  building  of  churches  was  the  most  im- 
portant, if  permanent  occupancy  was  to  result  from  the 
self-sacrificing  work  of  the  ministers  who  labored  in 

143 


DAVID    MORTON 


that  far-away  field.  He  had  seen  many  instances  in 
Montana  where  hard  pioneering  work  had  been  done 
by  .our  preachers  that  failed  of  lasting  results.  A  nu- 
cleus of  members  would  be  gathered  together  and  a 
start  for  a  permanent  congregation  made,  the  only 
meeting  place  being  the  various  homes  of  the  members, 
who  were  too  poor  to  build  a  church,  struggling,  as  they 
were,  to  establish  themselves  in  a  new  country.  As  a 
result  the  community  at  large  had  no  faith  in  the  per- 
manency of  such  a  society  and  needed  to  be  convinced 
of  its  vitality  by  visible  evidence  in  the  form  of  a 
church  building.  The  little  bands  first  gathered  to- 
gether had  belonged  to  the  mother  Church  before  com- 
ing West.  This  common  tie  served  to  hold  each  little 
group  together  for  a  time,  but  the  society  thus  com- 
posed could  not  project  itself  upon  the  community  at 
large  and  extend  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  among  the 
irreligious  without  a  public  place  of  gathering  at  which 
divine  worship  could  be  held  and  religious  revivals  con- 
ducted. The  erection  of  such  a  building  always  gave 
the  Church  a  position  of  greater  respect  and  influence 
in  the  community.  Mr.  Morton  pointed  out  that  these 
things  were  true  not  only  of  Montana,  but  of  all  the 
work  of  the  West  and,  in  fact,  wherever  missionary 
money  was  expended.  He  affirmed  that  the  only  rem- 
edy for  the  condition  throughout  the  Church  was  the 

144 


The  First  Office  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
The  first  office  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  was  at  number 
520  West  Chestnut  Street,  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  the  home  of  Doctor 
Morton,  the  office  occupying  the  down  stairs  front  room  only.  The 
picture  shows  the  house  as  it  appeared  in  1915  somewhat  remodeled 
and  occupied  as  a  place  of  business.  At  a  meeting  held  here  on 
June  24th,  1882,  the  Board  was  organized. 


DAVID    MORTON 


organization  of  a  church-building  department  connec- 
tional  in  its  scope. 

Mr.  Morton  returned  to  Kentucky  after  completing 
his  mission  in  Montana  with  these  ideas  firmly  rooted 
in  his  mind.  He  lost  no  time  in  laying  them  before 
Bishop  McTyeire,  who  acquiesced  in  them  fully  and 
became  their  advocate  ever  after  in  the  College  of 
Bishops  and  throughout  the  Church.  It  seemed  evi- 
dent from  the  beginning  that  this  movement  for  sys- 
tematic church-building,  whenever  inaugurated,  must  be 
a  connectional  one,  the  whole  Church  lending  its  aid  to 
homeless  congregations  unable  by  themselves  to  build 
houses  of  worship. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  at  this  time  and  before, 
when  a  church  was  to  be  built,  the  society  itself  must 
first  raise  all  the  money  possible  from  among  its  own 
members,  then  solicit  funds  from  the  community  at 
large,  and  then  appeal  to  other  neighboring  Methodist 
congregations  and  individuals.  We  have  seen  in  a 
former  chapter  how  Mr.  Morton,  when  a  young  pastor 
at  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  in  an  old  settled  community, 
had  found  the  resources  of  his  little  congregation  inade- 
quate to  such  a  task  and,  mounting  his  horse,  had  trav- 
eled over  the  southern  section  of  the  Louisville  Confer- 
ence canvassing  for  money  among  his  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances and  Methodists  in  general.  Each  congre- 
gation had  to  work  out  for  itself,  without  advice  or 
10  145 


DAVID    MORTON 


counsel  or  financial  help  from  the  Church  at  large,  the 
problem  of  its  own  house  of  worship.  And  this  applied 
not  only  to  the  West,  but  to  all  sections.  In  the  West, 
however,  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome  were  infinitely 
greater  than  elsewhere. 

The  General  Conference  of  1878  followed  close  upon 
the  heels  of  Mr.  Morton's  Montana  mission  and  found 
this  new  movement  for  a  church-building  department 
in  the  Church  in  its  infancy.  Mr.  Morton  was  a  mem- 
ber of  this  Conference  and  used  the  opportunity  it  pre- 
sented to  extend  his  views  regarding  the  policy  of 
church-building  and  the  occupancy  of  the  West  by  our 
Church  among  the  delegates  present.  The  friends  of 
the  cause  had  not  developed  plans  sufficiently  mature 
to  present  to  the  General  Conference  for  adoption,  nor 
was  the  Church  sufficiently  informed  for  definite  ac- 
tion. Enough  of  the  leading  men  of  the  Church,  how- 
ever, were  convinced  of  the  necessity  for  such  a  depart- 
ment of  Church  work  to  form  a  nucleus  for  the  spread 
of  the  propaganda. 

Bishop  Marvin's  death,  on  November  19,  1877,  was 
a  great  personal  bereavement  to  Mr.  Morton,  and  the 
loss  of  his  counsel  and  help  was  greatly  felt  by  all  those 
interested  in  this  new  cause.  Bishop  Marvin,  with 
Bishop  McTyeire,  had  been  instrumental  in  sending 
Mr.  Morton  to  Montana  and  had  given  him  his  final 
instructions.     On  the  way  to  Montana  Mr.  Morton 

146 


DAVID    MORTON 


was  a  guest  at  Bishop  Marvin's  home,  in  St.  Louis. 
He  accompanied  Bishop  Marvin  to  Colorado  Springs, 
where  the  Denver  Conference  was  held,  and  was  ap- 
pointed by  him  at  that  Conference  to  the  Montana  Dis- 
trict. It  was  from  this  Conference  that  Bishop  Marvin 
started  on  his  missionary  tour  around  the  world,  ac- 
companied by  Rev.  E.  R.  Hendrix  (afterwards  Bishop 
Hendrix).  Bishop  Marvin  was  inclined  to  poke  a  little 
fun  at  his  tenderfoot  traveling  companion  from  Ken- 
tucky, who  had  never  before  been  West,  for  in  one  of 
his  letters  he  says : 

My  Kentucky  friend  saw^the  biggest  fields  of  corn  he 
had  ever  seen.  Some  of  the  fields  were  miles  and  miles  in 
extent.  Wednesday  morning  found  us  fairly  out  upon 
the  plains.  That  day  constituted  an  epoch  in  the  life  of 
my  traveling  companion.  He  saw  more  new  things  than 
he  had  ever  seen  before,  if  you  except  the  first  year  he 
spent  in  the  world.  He  saw  the  buffalo  grass,  the  wind- 
mills, the  prairie  dogs,  the  antelope,  the  grasshopper,  the 
plains,  Denver,  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  was  a 
grand  day. 

During  the  next  four  years  Mr.  Morton  never  lost 
his  enthusiasm  for  the  new  Church  enterprise,  but 
pondered  over  it,  discussed  it  whenever  an  opportunity 
offered  with  the  leading  mean  of  the  Church,  and  ma- 
tured in  his  own  mind  the  fundamental  principles  on 
which  definite  action  should  be  based.  During  his  pas- 
torate at  Elkton  and  while  presiding  elder  of  the  Louis- 

147 


DAVID    MORTON 


ville  District  the  subject  was  ever  with  him.  He  talked 
about  it,  wrote  about  it,  and  investigated  the  church 
extension  methods  adopted  by  other  Churches  to  meet 
the  same  problem.  At  a  later  date,  when  he  had  be- 
come Secretary  of  the  new  Board  of  Church  Extension, 
he  publicly  acknowledged  in  his  first  annual  report  the 
benefits  secured  from  studying  the  achievements  of 
other  Churches.  He  made  frequent  visits  to  Bishop 
McTyeire  at  Nashville,  who  always  gave  him  a  sympa- 
thetic hearing  and  for  whom  he  always  had  the  pro- 
foundest  regard  and  love.  He  really  became  obsessed 
with  his  subject  and  thoroughly  convinced  that  it  was 
his  duty  to  promote  it  by  all  possible  means. 

As  the  result  of  the  work  of  those  interested,  it  is 
readily  understood  that  during  the  quadrennium  that 
immediately  preceded  the  General  Conference  of  1882 
there  was  no  little  discussion  in  the  Church  press  and 
elsewhere  concerning  the  necessity  for  a  General  Board 
of  Church  Extension  to  supplement  the  work  of  the 
Board  of  Missions  and  to  give  material  help  in  the 
building  of  suitable  houses  of  worship  in  both  home 
and  foreign  fields.  Many  of  the  wisest  leaders  gave  it 
their  hearty  approval;  while  there  were  others  not  a 
few  who  vigorously  opposed  it,  saying  that  it  was  sim- 
ply another  step  in  the  over-organization  of  the  Church 
and  that  it  meant  the  saddling  of  the  already  burdened 
pastors  with  the  taking  of  an  additional  collection  from 

148 


DAVID    MORTON 


reluctant  congregations.  The  arguments  were  not  all 
on  one  side.  Sentiment  in  the  West  was  strongly  for 
the  new  movement;  and  in  1881  the  Montana  Confer- 
ence went  so  far  as  to  organize  a  Conference  Board  of 
Church  Extension  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  the 
building  of  churches  within  the  bounds  of  that  Confer- 
ence. This  action  was  taken  at  the  suggestion  of  Rev. 
E.  J.  Stanley.  Mr.  Stanley  was  an  able  and  eloquent 
advocate  for  an  organized  movement  in  behalf  of 
Church  Extension  and  contributed  no  little  to  its  in- 
auguration by  his  stirring  appeals  through  the  Church 
papers.  After  this  the  Denver  Conference  also  organ- 
ized a  society  of  its  own,  and  there  was  stirring  in  the 
tree  tops  of  Kentucky  and  Missouri. 

But  when  the  General  Conference  met  on  May  3, 
1882,  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  it  was  promptly  moved 
that  a  committee  be  appointed,  consisting  of  one  mem- 
ber from  each  Annual  Conference,  to  be  called  the  Com- 
mittee on  Church  Extension.  The  motion  prevailed, 
and  the  committee  was  appointed  along  with  the  other 
standing  committees.  On  May  17  it  submitted  a  re- 
port, the  consideration  of  which  was  begun  by  the 
Conference  on  May  17  and  which,  after  sundry  amend- 
ments, was  finally  adopted  on  May  22.  This  report 
provided  for  the  creation  of  a  board  and  also  pre- 
scribed the  method  of  organizing  it.  On  May  23  the 
following  gentlemen  were  named  as  managers :  W.  T. 

149 


DAVID    MORTON 


Harris,  C.  I.  Vandeventer,  J.  C.  Morris,  W.  F.  Comp- 
ton,  C  D.  Shands,  J.  H.  Carlisle,  F.  B.  Carroll,  H.  C. 
Settle,  Joseph  Emery,  C.  E.  Brown,  C.  B.  Seymour, 
James  G.  Carter,  and  J.  C.  Woodward.  After  a  few 
weeks  C.  B.  Seymour  and  J.  C.  Woodward  resigned, 
and  C.  S.  Grubbs  and  John  L.  Wheat  were  put  in  their 
places.  The  bishops  of  the  Church  were  all  named  as 
ex  officio  members.  James  S.  Lithgow  was  elected 
President ;  Presley  Meguiar,  Vice  President ;  John  W. 
Proctor,  Treasurer ;  and  David  Morton,  Corresponding 
Secretary. 

The  most  significant  of  all  these  preliminary  steps 
was  the  naming  of  David  Morton  to  the  secretaryship. 
When  it  is  stated  that  Mr.  Morton  was  not  a  member 
of  the  General  Conference  that  thus  elected  him,  his 
selection  is  worthy  of  still  greater  remark  and  makes 
it  perfectly  apparent  that  he  had  reached  that  point  in 
his  career  where  his  reputation  was  connectional.  Sev- 
eral other  gentlemen,  good  and  eloquent  men,  aspired 
to  the  place;  but  not  one  of  them  had  the  special 
qualifications  for  it  that  he  possessed.  Bishop  Mc- 
Tyeire  had  discerned  this  fact  in  advance  and  had  said 
to  him:  "Morton,  you  are  the  man."  It  is  scarcely 
correct  to  say  that  his  word  was  prophetic.  It  was  sim- 
ply the  sound  judgment  of  one  who  knew  what  he  was 
talking  about.    But  it  cannot  be  superstitious  to  declare 

150 


We  Were  Boys  Together 
David    Morton   between    two   of   his   childhood   playmates, 
former  slaves  of  his  father.     Ned  Morton  is  standing,  Dick 
Morton  is  sitting.     When  David  Morton  died  these  colored 
men  dug  his  grave  and  buried  him. 


DAVID    MORTON 


that  Providence  guided  the  electors  in  casting  their 
ballots. 

When  Mr.  Morton  entered  upon  his  office,  he  had 
nothing  but  the  authority  of  the  Church  with  which  to 
start.  Two  great  tasks  lay  before  him :  First,  to  organ- 
ize his  office ;  and,  second,  to  secure  funds  for  carrying 
out  the  enterprise  in  hand.  Neither  of  these  tasks  was 
light.  If  his  business  capacity  had  been  smaller,  he 
would  have  failed.  But  he  knew  how  to  begin  intel- 
ligently, and  in  less  than  a  year  he  had  everything  run- 
ning on  definite  schedules.  Not  for  one  day  did  he 
dream  of  going  at  things  irregularly  or  in  helter- 
skelter  fashion.  I  am  sure  that  a  close  examination 
of  all  books  and  records  would  fail  to  discover  even 
the  slightest  trace  of  disorder  or  lack  of  proper  meth- 
ods in  his  administration.  The  charter  which  he  ob- 
tained from  the  Kentucky  Legislature,  and  which  was 
drawn  up  under  his  eye,  if  not  by  his  hand,  is  an  ideal 
one.  When  the  Commission  on  Charters  appointed  by 
the  General  Conference  of  19 14  went  through  it  a  few 
months  ago,  it  did  not  find  a  single  defect  in  it  nor 
make  a  single  suggestion  in  the  way  of  altering  and 
improving  it. 

Besides  inaugurating  his  office  system,  Mr.  Morton 
had  enough  work  on  the  outside  to  occupy  the  full  time 
of  half  a  dozen  men.  The  new  movement  had  to  en- 
counter a  good  deal  of  criticism  and  opposition  even 

151 


DAVID    MORTON 


after  it  had  been  adopted  by  the  General  Conference. 
There  were  many  men — ^good  men,  too — in  various 
parts  of  the  Church  who  had  no  great  interest  in  it 
and  who  were  incHned  to  look  upon  it  with  indifference 
even  when  they  did  not  directly  antagonize  it.  To  deal 
with  everybody  so  as  to  convert  direct  antagonism  into 
active  and  cordial  support  required  energy,  good  sense, 
and  a  most  conciliatory  spirit.  Mr.  Morton,  however, 
believed  that  in  time  he  could  do  it.  This  was  no  ego- 
tism on  his  part.  He  had  simply  taken  the  measure  of 
his  capacity  and  knew  what  it  was.  To  one  of  his 
friends  he  said :  "I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  succeed- 
ing." And  so  he  began  the  tour  of  the  Annual  Con- 
ferences and  kept  it  up  almost  without  slackening  for 
the  next  sixteen  years.  It  was  not  unusual  for  him  to 
visit  as  many  as  fifteen  or  twenty  a  year.  In  the  course 
of  time  he  was,  perhaps,  more  thoroughly  familiar  with 
them  than  any  man  that  ever  held  a  connectional  posi- 
tion in  the  Church.  As  a  speaker  he  acquired  great 
popularity.  For  one  thing,  he  was  usually  brief,  not 
wandering  over  the  universe  in  general,  but  sticking 
closely  to  his  own  business  and  dealing  with  that  in  a 
very  illuminating  fashion.  If  at  any  time  his  audience 
gave  signs  of  listlessness,  he  knew  exactly  how  to  wake 
them  up  by  injecting  a  lively  story  or  a  humorous  illus- 
tration. His  private  intercourse  with  the  members  of 
the  Conference  helped  him  mightily  in  his  public  func- 

152 


DAVID    MORTON 

7 


tions.  He  was  one  connectional  officer  whose  coming 
was  not  dreaded,  but  welcomed.  Nor  did  he  stop  with 
the  Conference.  Whenever  his  presence  was  specially 
called  for,  no  matter  what  the  cost  of  time  and  energy, 
he  was  pretty  sure  to  be  there.  What  is  of  much  great- 
er impwDrtance,  moreover,  is  the  fact  that  he  always 
counted  for  something  when  he  got  there.  He  was 
always  eager  to  learn  and  glad  to  teach.  Besides  his 
official  visitations  to  Annual  and  District  Conferences, 
he  was  constantly  on  the  lookout  for  individual  men 
and  women  who  were  likely  to  be  helpful  to  the  cause 
in  which  he  was  interested.  The  number  of  private 
homes  into  which  he  entered  in  pursuance  of  his  work 
is  almost  beyond  belief.  But  active  as  he  was  in  all 
these  respects,  he  never  lowered  himself  to  the  level  of 
a  mere  beggar  or  solicitor.  It  was  not  in  him  at  any 
time  to  forfeit  his  self-respect  nor  to  degrade  his 
Church  by  putting  on  the  cringing  manners  of  a  men- 
dicant. The  people  with  whom  he  did  business  came 
to  see  that  he  was  every  inch  a  man ;  and  usually  they 
not  only  contributed  to  Church  Extension,  but  also 
grew  to  be  his  warm  personal  friends,  believing  in  the 
downright  sincerity  of  his  purpose  and  in  the  trust- 
worthiness of  his  judgment. 

During  the  year  following  the  organization  of  the 
Board  five  called  meetings  were  held,  at  none  of  which 
was  there  a  very  full  attendance.    The  managers  were 

153 


DAVID   MORTON 


scattered  over  the  whole  Church,  and  the  expense  of 
traveling  was  too  great  to  justify  them  in  all  coming 
together  when  business  needed  attention.  Fortunate- 
ly, the  local  managers — ^such  men  as  Carter,  Meguiar, 
Settle,  Morris,  and  Wheat — were  first-class  business 
men  and  greatly  consecrated  to  the  work.  Enough  of 
them  were  always  on  hand  to  make  a  quorum.  At  the 
first  annual  meeting  as  many  as  fifteen  appeared  and 
took  part  in  the  proceedings. 

Mr.  Carter  was  a  devoted  and  devout  Methodist,  a 
prominent  business  man  of  Louisville,  and  a  wise  ad- 
viser. He  left  his  impress  upon  Louisville  Methodism. 
The  relations  between  him  and  Mr.  Morton  were  those 
of  close  friendship.  Mr.  Meguiar  was  one  of  those 
staunch  men  who  ring  true  to  their  convictions  on  all 
occasions,  dependable,  wise  in  counsel,  ready  to  help 
financially  whenever  the  need  arose,  consecrated  to  the 
Church,  with  a  sympathetic  appreciation  of  Mr.  Mor- 
ton*s  abilities  and  character.  Between  the  two  men 
there  was  a  strong  bond  of  friendship,  beginning  be- 
fore the  Civil  War  with  the  movement  for  a  boys' 
school  at  Bowling  Green,  lasting  through  many  years, 
and  severed  only  by  death.  Mr.  Wheat  still  lives.  He 
and  Mr.  Morton  were  in  many  respects  the  opposite 
of  each  other,  but  they  understood  each  other,  and  each 
believed  in  the  other's  fidelity  to  the  Church ;  and  for 
many  years  they  planned  and  labored  together  in  her 

154 


DAVID    MORTON 


interest,  maintaining  all  the  while  a  mutual  friendship 
of  the  highest  type.  This  trio  of  business  men  played 
an  important  part  in  the  work  of  Church  Extension 
during  the  lifetime  of  Mr.  Morton.  They  were  true 
men  laboring  in  a  great  cause. 

The  first  annual  report  of  the  Secretary  was  brief 
and  to  the  point.  He  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
he  had  attended  during  the  year  twenty-one  Confer- 
ences, had  traveled  nearly  twenty  thousand  miles  in 
twenty-two  States,  two  Territories,  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, and  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  and  had  seen  near- 
ly all  the  country  occupied  by  his  Church  except  the  Pa- 
cific Slope.  He  further  added  that  "at  all  of  the  An- 
nual Conferences  attended  by  the  Secretary,  and  at  a 
great  many  others,  public  meetings  in  the  interest  of 
Church  Extension  had  been  held,  at  which  respectful 
and  earnest  attention  was  given  to  the  speeches  setting 
forth  the  methods  and  purposes  of  the  Board,  and  some 
enthusiasm  was  excited." 

As  the  assessment  of  fifty-five  thousand  dollars  made 
upon  the  Church  for  the  first  year  had  reached  the  An- 
nual Conference  only  a  few  months  before  the  annual 
meeting,  there  was,  of  course,  no  money  in  the  treasur)'- 
from  that  source.  But  to  meet  some  emergent  issues 
in  New  Mexico  about  twenty-three  hundred  dollars 
had  been  raised  by  special  collections  and  properly  dis- 
bursed.   Provision  had  been  made  for  printing  a  series 

155 


DAVID    MORTON 


of  Church  Extension  tracts,  and  an  arrangement  had 
been  entered  into  with  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  for  purchasing 
from  it  at  most  reasonable  figures  plans  and  specifica- 
tions for  new  churches. 

These  extracts  call  attention  to  the  field  work  of  the 
Secretary,  which  was  of  equal  importance  with  that  of 
the  office  work.  This  was  not  only  true  in  the  begin- 
ning, but  remained  so  year  after  year.  The  whole 
Church  not  only  needed  to  be  informed  and  interest- 
ed, in  the  first  place,  but  it  must  be  kept  so.  The 
thousands  of  preachers  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
members  needed  to  be  reminded  of  the  aims  and 
purposes  of  Church  Extension.  It  was  not  work  that 
could  be  done  once  and  then  dropped.  Every  year  a 
campaign  of  educaticwi  and  interest  was  necessary  in 
order  to  bring  the  Church  to  realize  the  necessity  for 
meeting  the  assessments.  This  was  accomplished 
through  the  pulpit,  the  platform,  mass  meetings,  parlor 
conferences,  the  religious  press,  and  a  literary  bureau. 
Leaflets,  ma.ps,  reports,  and  other  forms  of  literature 
were  printed  by  tens  of  thousands  and  scattered 
throughout  the  Church.  All  this  required  the  presence 
of  the  Secretary  at  many  places,  and  during  his  sixteen 
years  of  service  he  traveled  thousands  of  miles  in  the 
South  and  West  annually.  These  trips  often  covered 
weeks  of  time.     Economy  in  traveling  was  always 

156 


DAVID    MORTON 


practiced.  Mr.  Morton  was  so  impressed  with  the 
need  for  money  in  the  actual  work  of  building  churches 
that  he  could  not  bear  to  see  it  spent  otherwise,  if  pos- 
sible to  avoid,  and  he  was  willing  to  endure  personal 
inconvenience  to  accomplish  this  end.  Perhaps  he  did 
not  save  his  strength  and  conserve  his  health  while 
undergoing  these  discomforts  of  travel,  but  his  con- 
duct in  these  matters  shows  his  entire  devotion  to  the 
cause  for  which  he  labored.  When  starting  on  a  long 
trip  involving  several  days  of  continuous  travel  before 
reaching  his  destination,  it  was  his  custom  to  carry  a 
lunch  basket  prepared  by  Mrs.  Morton,  containing  suf- 
ficient food  to  last  until  the  journey^s  end.  Dining  cars 
were  expensive  luxuries  in  those  days.  These  lunch 
baskets  were  matters  of  serious  thought  and  prepara- 
tion. Inasmuch  as  Mr.  Morton  was  almost  certain  to 
find  some  other  Church  official  on  the  train  traveling  to 
the  same  destination,  provision  was  made  for  more  than 
one,  and  from  the  interior  of  his  basket  many  bishops 
and  other  connectional  officers  were  served  who  other- 
wise would  have  gone  hungry  owing  to  the  vicissitudes 
of  travel.  The  lunch  basket  became  with  him  a  regular 
institution,  especially  in  the  early  years  of  Church  Ex- 
tension, when  the  eating  arrangements  of  the  railroads 
were  very  poor  compared  with  the  well-regulated  com- 
missai7  departments  of  the  present  day.  At  one  time 
he  and  Bishop  McTyeire  traveled  in  company  to  Cali- 

157 


DAVID    MORTON 


fornia.  On  this  trip  the  basket  contained  a  home-cured 
ham  of  a  Kentucky  shoat  and  other  things  in  propor- 
tioa  The  Bishop  did  full  justice  to  the  edibles  pro- 
vided and  expressed  his  satisfaction  at  the  journey's 
end.  Mr.  Morton  avoided  the  sleeping  car  on  many  of 
his  trips  and,  with  a  rubber  air  pillow  and  a  blanket 
shawl,  would  spent  the  night  in  the  day  coach. 

His  capacity  for  detail  was  shown  in  the  preparation 
of  his  itineraries.  From  the  railroad  time  tables  he 
would  prepare  a  schedule  showing  his  time  of  arrival 
and  departure  at  every  stop  he  intended  making  on  a 
tour  of  several  weeks'  duration.  He  studied  out  the 
different  railroads  by  which  he  could  reach  a  given 
point  and  selected  that  one  which  offered  the  least  mile- 
age and  the  quickest  time  and  which  gave  him  the  best 
connections  with  other  roads.  Every  trip  was  planned 
with  an  eye  to  economy  in  time  and  money,  and  so 
explicit  was  the  plan  that  the  office  knew  where  he  was 
and  could  reach  him  by  wire  at  any  time.  It  was  truly 
remarkable  how  literally  he  carried  out  these  schedules 
involving  journeys  of  thousands  of  miles  and  weeks  of 
time.  He  rarely  failed  to  return  home  on  the  day  des- 
ignated before  beginning  his  journey.  He  would  then 
tell  how  every  appointment  had  been  kept  to  the  min- 
ute. He  was  never  in  a  serious  railroad  wreck,  nor 
did  he  ever  sustain  an  injury  of  even  a  slight  nature. 
He  believed  that  God  watched  over  and  protected  him. 

158 


O)  c  <u  I  0)  c  ^; 


'a, 


(1)4-'  faC  ?  ^< 

o  •;=  o  5  s,  "'  g  c 

ra   r-  !d  n  (11     —  C 
O 


pj   M  3  O  _,;t:^<M 


c  d-^  '^,  -"^s .: 


M  -S- 


5o£: 


^  ^  .2  ti  .2^  S  (D  "^ 

^ll«  lip 


©t; 


(D  G"^*"^ 


5,?  >.^    ^„ 
^»^^  5  Ma's 


DAVID    MORTON 


A  great  many  of  the  letters  which  he  wrote  for  the 
papers  during  his  travels  as  Secretary  of  the  Board  are 
abundantly  worth  reading.  In  1896  he  made,  in  com- 
pany with  Bishop  Joseph  S.  Key,  a  trip  to  Mexico— 
as  he  had  made  one  before,  in  1888 — and  had  a  long 
and  instructive  interview  with  President  Diaz,  besides 
giving  careful  attention  to  the  work  of  missions  in  the 
Republic.  In  1897  he  went  to  Montana  on  business  of 
a  different  sort.  His  account  of  this  latter  visit  is  so 
characteristic  of  Him  that  I  reproduce  it  here  in  full : 

Chasing  cayuse  ponies  over  the  hills  and  plains  of 
Northern  Montana  is  not  one  of  the  written  duties  apper- 
taining to  my  office,  and  yet  in  the  general  "round-up" 
of  my  work  for  the  quadrennium  I  have  found  this  among 
my  obligations.  At  the  last  meeting  of  our  Board  I  re- 
ported as  part  of  its  assets  the  remnant  of  a  herd  of 
horses,  given  us  several  years  ago  by  the  venerable  and 
now  deceased  Rev.  L.  B.  Stateler,  and  was  directed  to  dis- 
pose of  them  as  soon  as  might  be  on  the  best  terms  possi- 
ble. They  were  running  on  a  public  domain  in  Teton 
County,  Montana,  on  the  borders  of  British  America,  and 
in  charge  of  a  ranchman  whose  correspondence  with  me 
was  so  discouraging  that  I  sent  a  man  from  Louisville, 
who  had  spent  several  years  in  the  West  and  was  an  ex- 
pert in  handling  horses,  to  make  a  personal  inspection 
and  report.  He  represented  them  as  scattered  over  many 
miles  of  distance,  marked  in  several  brands,  as  wild  as 
zebras,  diseased,  delirious  with  fear  whenever  a  man  came 
in  sight,  and  dangerous  after  they  were  run  down  by  a 
relay  of  horses  and  caught  with  a  lasso.  I  wrote  him  to 
hold  the  fort  till  I  got  there,  and  upon  my  arrival  we  im- 

159 


DAVID    MORTON 


mediately  instituted  negotiations  looking  to  the  transfer 
of  our  title  in  the  aforesaid  herd  to  some  one  more  anxious 
to  own  it  than  we  were.  I  have  never  swapped  horses  in 
my  life,  an  unusual  experience  for  a  Methodist  preacher 
of  my  age  in  Kentucky,  and  in  all  the  buying  and  selling 
I  have  done  during  a  ministry  of  over  forty  years  I  have 
been  a  constant  loser ;  but  I  had  been  told  to  "dispose"  of 
this  lot,  and  I  resolved  to  obey  instructions. 

We  were  told  that  it  would  be  well-nigh  impossible  to 
sell  at  any  price,  and  a  few  attempts  in  that  direction 
assured  me  that  this  statement  was  well-nigh  true.  Quo- 
tations were  so  low  that  I  thought  of  shipping  them  East 
in  search  of  a  better  market ;  but  the  rates  by  rail  and  the 
cost  of  driving  forbade  both  plans.  One  man  averred 
that  he  had  sent  one  hundred  picked  horses  from  his  band 
by  a  careful  trader,  who  carried  them,  with  numerous 
stops  this  side,  to  New  York,  where  the  remnant  of  the 
band  went  into  the  hands  of  butchers ;  and  the  whole  lot, 
he  found  on  returning  home  and  deducting  expenses,  had 
netted  him  three  dollars  each.  And  then  the  thought  that 
our  prairie  pets  should  come  to  such  an  ignominious  end 
as  to  be  chopped  up  for  sausage  meat  or  parboiled  and 
put  into  cans,  that  their  tongues  were  to  go  into  sand- 
wiches and  be  sold  in  cheap  restaurants,  was  more  than  T 
could  bear. 

Just  here  it  occurred  to  me  that  they  might  be  traded 
for  real  estate,  and  I  was  unwise  enough  to  say  it  aloud. 
This  was  the  signal  for  a  horde  of  land  mongers  to 
"break  in  upon  me  like  a  flood  of  waters."  These  dealers 
"held" — I  shall  not  say  owned — sections  and  half  sec- 
tions and  forties  and  twenties  and  town  lots  and  frac- 
tions thereof,  which  had  been  acquired  by  preemption  or 
under  the  tree  act  or  as  a  homestead  or  by  purchase,  with 

i6o 


DAVID    MORTON 


only  a  partial  payment  and  a  lien  still  upon  the  ground 
for  ten  times  its  whole  value,  leaving  the  title  in  almost 
every  case  imperfect.  And  thus  the  hope  that  our  Board 
would  soon  be  a  freeholder  in  this  great  State  vanished 
into  thin  air. 

Mines  came  next  in  order,  and  I  could  have  secured  a 
prospect  hole  for  each  horse  in  the  band;  but  they  look 
so  much  like  graves,  and  in  them  are  buried  the  hopes  of 
so  many  poor,  struggling,  suffering  miners,  that  I  was 
afraid  to  try  them.  Ten  days  of  such  suspense  brought 
on  a  spell  of  insomnia — sometimes  and  very  appropriately 
called  "the  wonders" — and  then  a  good  providence  sent 
a  purchaser,  and  the  horses  were  exchanged  for  two  w^ell- 
secured  notes  bearing  interest  and  due  in  one  or  two  years. 
And  so,  while  we  shall  see  no  more,  even  with  the  aid  of  a 
field  glass,  our  flying  squadron,  we  hope  to  count  the  cash 
it  brought  and  with  it  build  houses  of  worship  more 
beautiful  and  useful  than  these  rovers  on  the  plains. 

Soon  after  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  had  been 
set  up  in  1882  the  question  arose  in  the  minds  of  Mr. 
Morton,  Bishop  Hargrove,  and  others  whether  the 
good  women  of  the  Church  might  not  in  some  way  be 
enlisted  in  the  support  of  the  work  of  the  Board.  At 
the  first  annual  meeting  the  question  was  asked :  "May 
not  women  do  organized  work  for  Church  Extension?" 
This  question  was  referred  to  a  committee,  which  sub- 
mitted a  report  which  was  adopted  and  ordered  printed. 
In  the  third  annual  report  Mr.  Morton  used  these 
v^^ords : 

II  161 


DAVID    MORTON 


We  trust  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  by  reg- 
ular plan  the  women  and  children  of  the  Church  may  be 
enlisted  in  gathering  up  the  fagments,  when  in  a  solid 
phalanx  the  men  of  moderate  means  will  move  up  to  the 
help  of  the  cause,  and  when  persons  of  great  possessions 
among  us  will  feel  themselves  honored  to  be  allowed  to 
lay  upon  God's  altar  their  thousands  to  be  molded  into 
permanent  funds  which  shall  continue  to  extend  the 
Church  long  after  they  are  in  heaven. 

Bishop  Hargrove  made  the  suggestion  that  parson- 
age-building ought  to  appeal  to  women  and  might  be 
a  work  which  would  enlist  their  interest  and  support. 
Bishop  Hargrove's  observations  in  the  West  especially 
had  convinced  him  of  the  necessity  for  supplying  the 
preachers  with  homes.  The  same  reasoning  which  had 
pointed  out  the  necessity  for  churches  for  homeless 
congregations  likewise  emphasized  the  necessity  for 
parsonages  for  homeless  preachers.  A  preacher  on  a 
hard  field  of  labor,  without  a  house  for  his  family,  and 
spending  a  goodly  part  of  his  meager  salary  for  rent, 
had  a  difficult  financial  problem  to  meet.  For  this  rea- 
son suitable  men  for  important  places  could  not  be 
secured  at  all  times,  and  often  the  interests  of  the 
Church  suffered  because  there  was  no  home  for  the 
preacher.  These  things  were  matters  of  common  ob- 
servation to  both  Mr.  Morton  and  Bishop  Hargrove. 

Shortly  after  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  had 
been  organized  Miss  Lucinda  B,  Helm  came  to  Mr. 

1 6a 


DAVID    MORTON 


Morton  and  asked  him  to  give  her  an  opportunity  of 
doing  something  to  forward  the  interests  of  Church 
Extension.  Mr.  Morton  was  glad  to  avail  himself  of 
her  talents  as  a  writer  for  the  preparation  of  literature 
for  educational  and  publicity  purposes,  and  in  this  way 
she  first  became  connected  with  the  work  of  the  Board. 
Among  other  things,  she  wrote  the  little  book  "Ger- 
ard," a  beautiful  Church  Extension  story  which  had  a 
large  circulation. 

When  Bishop  Hargrove  suggested  the  parsonage 
work  for  women,  Miss  Helm  was  called  into  confer- 
ence over  the  matter  and  approved  it  most  heartily. 
Much  was  said  and  written  on  the  subject,  but  nothing 
definite  was  done  until  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Morton 
and  Bishop  Hargrove;  and  with  their  help  and  advice 
Miss  Helm  prepared  a  plan  for  a  Woman's  Department 
of  Church  Extension  for  Parsonage-Building,  which 
was  submitted  to  the  stated  meeting  of  the  Board  of 
Church  Extension  held  in  January,  1886.  This  paper 
was  by  the  Board  referred  to  a  committee  consisting 
of  Bishop  Hargrove,  Rev.  H.  C.  Settle,  and  J.  G. 
Carter,  Esq.,  who  made  a  report  to  the  Board  at  its 
annual  meeting  April  9,  1886.  That  report  contained 
a  memorial  to  the  General  Conference,  which  was 
adopted  by  the  Board  as  follows: 

In  view  of  the  great  lack  of  parsonages  in  the  weaker 
charges  and  thronghoiit  the  Church  and  the  importance  to 

163 


DAVID    MORTON 


our  itinerant  economy;  and  whereas  there  is  no. organized 
agency  to  supply  this  demand,  which  appeals  so  directly 
and  so  strongly  to  the  Christian  endeavor  of  woman, 
whose  special  realm  is  the  home,  the  Board  of  Church 
Extension  believes  that  it  is  expedient  that  the  General 
Conference  provide  for  the  organization  of  a  Woman's 
Department  of  Church  Extension,  having  a  specific  refer- 
ence to  the  supply  of  parsonages  for  itinerant  preachers, 
and  asks  your  body  so  to  do. 

This  memorial,  after  due  consideration,  was  adopted 
by  the  General  Conference  of  1886,  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  was  amended 
accordingly. 

On  May  21,  of  the  year  named,  the  Board  of  Church 
Extension  met  in  Richmond,  Va.,  and  elected  Miss 
Lucinda  B.  Helm,  of  Kentucky,  Secretary  of  the  Wom- 
an's Department.  Miss  Helm  was  an  old  friend  of 
Mr.  Morton's.  She  had  been  a  teacher  in  the  Russell- 
ville  Female  Academy,  the  predecessor  of  Logan  Col- 
lege, when  he  was  its  President,  at  the  time  of  the  Civil 
War.  He  had  known  her  all  her  life,  had  selected  her 
for  the  position  of  Secretary  of  the  new  branch  of 
Church  Extension  work,  and  had  recommended  her 
appointment  to  the  Board.  She  was  at  home  in  his 
house  and  a  frequent  guest  at  his  table.  Miss  Helm 
entered  upon  her  work  with  great  diligence  and  secured 
the  hearty  cooperation  of  good  women  in  every  part 
of  the  Church.    She  was  a  sort  of  providential  woman. 

164 


Bishops  McTyeire  and  Kavanaugh 

These  Bishops  are  here  shown  in  a  rare  photograph.  The  first 
Memorial  Loan  Fund  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  was  named 
in  honor  of  Bishop  Kavanau^h,  who  is  on  the  readers  right.  He 
was  the  beloved  Bishop  of  Kentucky  Methodism,  and  lies  buried 
at  Louisville.  Bishop  McTyeire  took  an  active  part  in  the  inaugu- 
ration of  the  Church  Extension  movement  and  was  always  its 
staunch  supporter.  A  strong  personal  attachment  existed  between 
each  of  these  Bishops  and  David  Morton.  Bishop  McTyeire  was  the 
administrator,   Bishop  Kavanaugh  the  orator. 


DAVID    MORTON 


Her  family  connections  were  of  the  highest  in  Ken- 
tucky. The  famous  Ben  Hardin  was  her  maternal 
grandfather;  Governor  John  L.  Helm  was  her  father; 
and  Gen.  Ben  Hardin  Helm,  who  was  killed  while  lead- 
ing the  Orphan  Brigade  at  Chickamauga,  was  her 
brother.  In  every  way  she  was  a  refined  and  cultivated 
lady  and,  above  all,  a  most  devoted  and  earnest  Chris- 
tian. 

The  organization  of  the  Woman's  Department  of 
the  Board  was  a  subject  to  which  Mr.  Morton  gave 
much  attention.  Its  creation  and  organization  became 
the  duty  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension;  and  the 
responsibility  for  its  successful  issue  fell  upon  Mr. 
Morton,  he  being  responsible  for  the  proper  adminis- 
tration of  the  Woman's  Department  as  well  as  of  the 
general  Church  Extension  work.  The  Woman's  De- 
partment did  not  become  an  independent  connectional 
movement  till  later.  Miss  Helm  justified  Mr.  Morton's 
estimate  of  her  fitness  for  the  position  of  Secretary,  as 
is  fully  proved  by  her  first  quadrennial  report,  which 
show^ed  that  five  hundred  and  twelve  auxiliary  societies 
had  been  organized,  with  a  total  number  of  seven  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  sixteen  members ;  that  two  hun- 
dred and  four  parsonages  had  been  helped;  and  that 
the  aggregate  sum  of  thirty-three  thousand  nine  hun- 
dred and  three  dollars  and  fifty-seven  cents  had  been 
raised.    Mr.  Morton  stated  in  the  third  quadrennial  re- 

i6s 


DAVID    MORTON 


port  that  during  the  first  six  years  of  this  work  one- 
half  as  many  parsonages  were  built  as  during  the  pre- 
ceding one  hundred  years. 

The  history  of  this  society  is  that  of  continual  en- 
largement and  development.  By  the  act  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1890  it  became  a  separate  organization 
known  as  the  Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission 
Society,  under  the  control  of  a  Central  Committee, 
with  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  acting  as  trustee. 
A  large  parsonage  work  was  done  even  while  home 
mission  work  was  enterprised  and  maintained. 

In  1898  the  General  Conference  again  enlarged  its 
powers  and  more  perfectly  organized  what  was  to  be 
known  as  the  Woman's  Home  Mission  Society  and 
gave  It  a  representative  board.  Under  this  title  it  con- 
tinued to  do  great  work  until  by  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  19 10  it  was  merged  with  the  Woman's  For- 
eign Missionary  Society  into  the  Woman's  Missionary 
Council.  The  same  General  Conference  ordered  the 
building  of  parsonages  heretofore  carried  by  the  Wom- 
an's Home  Mission  Society  transferred  to  the  Board 
of  Church  Extension. 

Mr.  Morton  never  lost  his  interest  in  this  child  of 
Church  Extension  and  was  ever  the  friend  and  adviser 
of  Miss  Helm  until  her  death,  only  a  few  months  be- 
fore he  himself  was  called  from  labor  to  reward.    His 

166 


DAVID    MORTON 


final  tribute  to  her  shows  his  high  appreciation  of  this 
noble  woman : 

When  American  Methodism  begins  to  scan  the  records 
and  monuments  of  the  present  century  as  curiously  as  we 
are  now  scanning  those  of  the  century  of  Barbara  Heck 
and  Madame  Russell,  not  less  conspicuous  among  the 
names  of  the  elect  women  who  have  not  only  wrought  well 
themselves,  but  have  exhibited  the  rarer  grace  of  leader- 
ship, marshaling  armies  of  consecrated  women  to  peaceful 
victory,  will  be  that  of  the  indefatigable  Kentucky  woman 
whose  name  is  now  loved  and  honored  throughout  the 
entire  Church, 

Dr.  Morton — for  we  must  hereafter  give  him  the 
title  which  Centenary  College,  Jackson,  Louisiana,  had 
bestowed  upon  him  in  1883 — was,  of  course,  reelected 
to  the  secretaryship  by  the  General  Conference  of  1886 
for  another  quadrennium.  He  had,  in  fact,  done  his 
work  so  well  that  no  other  was  mentioned  to  take  his 
place.  Strengthened  by  this  new  expression  of  confi- 
dence from  his  brethren,  he  faced  the  responsibilities 
of  another  term  with  fresh  courage.  No  man  ever 
knew  better  than  he  the  value  of  steady  and  continuous 
labor.  It  did  not  enter  his  mind  that  he  could  succeed 
in  the  great  schemes  with  which  he  was  charged  by  any 
mere  succession  of  brilliant  strokes.  The  records  of 
each  succeeding  year,  however,  show  that  he  was  all 
the  time  gaining  some  ground  and  holding  all  that  he 
had  gained.     If  he  did  not  move  forward  with  great 

167 


DAVID    MORTON 


rapidity,  it  is  at  least  true  that  he  never  retreated.  Year 
by  year,  never  trying  to  run  in  advance  of  possibilities, 
but  always  endeavoring  to  keep  up  with  them,  he  saw 
the  assessment  on  the  Church  gradually  increasing  and 
the  percentage  of  collections  growing  larger.  This 
enabled  him  to  recommend  greater  appropriations  with- 
out endangering  the  financial  status  of  the  Board. 
Once  in  a  while  he  found  it  necessary  to  put  the 
brakes  on  some  of  his  enthusiastic  brethren  who  could 
always  see  larger  resources  in  the  future  than  in  the 
present  and  were  willing  to  go  in  debt  on  the  mere  hope 
that  the  liberality  of  the  Church  would  increase  fast 
enough  to  pay  them  out.  For  himself,  he  had  learned 
that  such  a  policy,  not  being  based  on  rational  expec- 
tations, savored  more  of  presumption  than  of  faith; 
and  so  he  opposed  it  with  what  sometimes  looked  like 
obstinacy.  In  the  end  it  nearly  always  appeared,  even 
to  those  whose  plans  he  had  resisted,  that  his  conten- 
tions were  correct. 

He  had  been  struggling  all  his  clerical  life  with 
Church  debts  of  one  kind  and  another,  and  he  was  de- 
termined that  the  Church  Extension  Board  should  for- 
ever remain  free  from  this  incubus.  The  constitution 
expressly  stated  that  "the  Board  shall  not  involve  itself 
in  debt,"  and  it  is  true  that  he  had  a  hand  in  putting 
this  prohibition  into  that  document. 

Things  in  general  ran  very  smoothly  from  year  to 
i68 


DAVID    MORTON 


year.  The  strictest  economy  was  practiced  by  the  Sec- 
retary in  every  respect.  For  rent  of  his  office  during 
the  first  six  years,  not  more  was  paid  than  from  ten  to 
twelve  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  month,  and  for  some 
time  after  that  not  more  than  twenty  dollars.  All  the 
furniture  purchased  from  1882  to  1890,  including  a 
typewriter,  cost  only  four  hundred  dollars  and  fifty 
cents.  As  to  office  service,  the  following  paragraph 
from  the  report  to  the  General  Conference  of  1890  is 
interesting : 

The  office  work  of  the  Board  comprises  an  immense 
and  constantly  increasing  correspondence,  the  arrange- 
ment and  distribution  through  the  mails  and  otherwise  of 
all  printed  matter,  the  recording  of  the  minutes  of  the 
meetings  of  the  Board  and  of  all  its  committees,  the  prep- 
aration of  voluminous  reports  embodying  numerous  mi- 
nute details,  the  keeping  of  a  full  set  of  double-entry 
books,  and  the  filing  of  a  great  number  of  valuable  pa- 
pers. This  work  has  kept  the  Secretary  very  busy  when 
at  home  and  made  it  necessary  for  the  Board  to  provide 
him  with  clerical  assistance,  which  has  cost  for  the  four 
years  $2,388.95,  or  an  average  of  a  little  less  than  fifty 
dollars  per  month. 

The  first  office  of  the  Board  was  opened  in  the  home 
of  the  Secretary,  at  520  West  Chestnut  Street,  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky.  It  was  a  very  modest  house,  and  a  tin 
sign,  something  like  a  doctor's  sign,  indicated  the  loca- 
tion of  this   new  department  of   Church   work.     A 

169 


DAVID    MORTON 


flat-top  desk  in  the  middle  of  the  room  was  the  sole  fur- 
niture of  the  office,  the  rest  belonging  to  the  house. 
Nothing  was  bought  except  as  the  necessities  of  the 
growth  of  the  work  compelled.  Discarded  envelopes 
were  split  open  and  used  as  memorandum  paper  in  of- 
fice work,  so  far  did  economy  go.  Larger  quarters 
were  secured  only  when  the  necessities  of  the  business 
required.  The  sitting  room  of  the  family  became  the 
reception  room  of  the  Board  and  was  used  for  this 
extra  purpose  for  years.  Dr.  Morton  would  never 
consent  to  an  office  separate  from  his  home.  He  never 
had  office  hours.  He  was  an  early  riser,  and  it  was 
his  regular  custom  to  be  up  before  the  family  and  at 
his  desk  before  breakfast  and  then  through  the  hours 
of  the  business  day  and  often  after  supper.  His  capac- 
ity for  steady  grinding  labor  was  enormous.  Such 
habits  no  physical  frame  could  stand,  if  persisted  in; 
and  his  breakdown  did  not  come  earlier  because  the 
demands  for  his  presence  in  the  field  were  frequent 
enough  to  break  in  on  such  reckless  disregard  of  the 
laws  of  health  and  force  him  to  a  cessation  of  such 
confining  labor.  There  can  be  no  question  that  his  life 
was  prolonged  by  his  frequent  travels  and  the  conse- 
quent rest,  change  of  scene,  and  mental  relaxation 
which  they  afforded.  No  man  was  ever  more  com- 
pletely absorbed,  body  and  soul,  in  his  work. 

Another  marked  trait  in  his  business  methods  was 
170 


DAVID    MORTON 


promptness.  He  could  never  bear  for  a  letter  to  lie 
unanswered.  He  would  never  consent  to  an  office  that 
was  not  easily  within  reach  of  the  post  office.  He 
rented  a  mail  box  and  would  himself  go  to  the  post 
office  and  get  the  mail  before  breakfast,  often  answer 
some  of  the  correspondence,  and  likewise  return  to  the 
post  office  and  mail  the  replies  before  breakfast.  It 
was  not  unusual  for  him  to  be  seen  on  such  errands, 
clad  in  his  morning  wrapper,  which  was  also  his  work- 
ing coat.  He  knew  the  schedule  of  the  outgoing  and 
incoming  mails  and  considered  it  a  part  of  his  business 
to  be  thus  informed. 

His  home  and  office  were  always  open  to  ministers 
and  friends.  They  came  unannounced,  stayed  as  long 
as  they  pleased,  and  left  when  it  suited  their  conven- 
ience. It  was  the  stop-over  place  for  his  brethren,  and 
he  made  it  convenient  and  useful  to  them  as  they  passed 
through  the  city  or  waited  from  train  to  train.  The 
bishops  in  their  travels  always  found  a  cozy  quiet  room, 
where  they  could  spent  a  few  restful  hours.  His  view 
of  a  Church  office  included  making  it  serve  the  preach- 
ers. In  the  office  itself  there  was  an  old-time  sofa, 
which  gave  rest  and  comfort  to  the  tired  ones.  Bishop 
Kavanaugh,  on  his  trips  to  the  city  from  his  suburban 
home,  would  drop  upon  its  inviting  cushions  and  forget 
fatigue  in  a  restful  nap  while  pens  and  brains  were 
busy  around  him. 

171 


DAVID    MORTON 


Dr.  Morton  was  a  financier  of  marked  ability.  This 
fact  stands  out  in  bold  relief,  whatever  his  work.  No 
matter  how  discouraging  the  prospect,  his  indomitable 
courage  and  tireless  energy  always  succeeded  in  solving 
the  financial  difficulties  of  every  enterprise  that  he  un- 
dertook. When  his  fitness  for  the  position  of  Secretary 
of  the  Church  Extension  Movement  was  under  discus- 
sion, a  member  of  his  own  Conference  said  of  him:  "If 
you  want  a  man  that  can  go  on  a  bare  rock  and  raise  a 
crop  without  seed  or  soil,  David  Morton  is  the  man. 
He  has  money  sense  and  Methodist  religion.*' 

The  financing  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
was  a  difficult  task.  We  have  seen  that  in  the  four 
years  preceding  the  General  Conference  of  1882  Dr. 
Morton  was  brooding  over  the  plans  for  the  new  move- 
ment soon  to  be  launched.  He  became  satisfied  that 
the  assessments  upon  the  Church  would  alone  be  inade- 
quate to  finance  efficiently  the  work  and  that  other 
methods  for  raising  money  must  be  adopted.  The 
loan  fund  idea  appealed  to  him  as  the  solution  of  the 
difficulty,  offering,  as  it  did,  a  permanent  fund  always 
available  and  indestructible.  His  keen  business  judg- 
ment grasped  its  many  advantages ;  and  when  the  time 
for  organization  came,  he  wrote  into  the  constitution 
the  following  section : 

This  Board  shall  have  authority  to  raise  and  administer 
a  loan  fund,  which  shall  be  separate  from  funds  raised  for 

172 


The  First  Home  Owned  by  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 

On  July  1st,  1897,  the  first  home  owned  by  the  Board  of 
Church  Extension  was  presented  to  it  by  Mrs.  Catherine 
Wilson,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Morton  of  Hopkinsville,  Ky.,  Presley 
Meguiar  and  David  Morton  by  w^hom  life  annuities  were 
reserved  to  themselves.  It  was  located  at  705  West  Chest- 
nut Street,  Louisville,  Ky.  Its  value  was  estimated  at 
$8,000.  Before  and  after  this  date  it  was  both  the  office 
of  the  Board  and  the  home  of  the  Secretary  and  here 
Doctor  Morton  died.     The  picture  was  taken  in  1915. 


DAVID    MORTON 


general  distribution,  and  which  shall  be  used  only  in  loans 
on  adequate  security  to  be  determined  by  the  Board. 

In  the  first  annual  report  this  part  of  the  work  is 
strongly  featured : 

We  believe  that  our  Board  has  been  charged  with  no 
more  important  duty  than  "to  raise  and  administer  a  loan 
fund."  We  understand  that  the  General  Conference  de- 
signed to  provide  that  no  part  of  this  fund  shall  ever  be 
donated  for  any  purpose  or  used  for  current  expenses, 
but  shall  be  preserved  without  diminution,  a  perpetual 
fund  to  be  loaned  to  Churches  in  aid  of  the  objects  of  the 
Board,  without  interest  or  with  interest,  as  occasion  may 
require  and  the  Board  shall  from  time  to  time  determine. 

Such  a  fund  would  be  especially  useful  from  the  con- 
sideration that  a  large  proportion  of  the  work  we  are 
called  upon  to  do  might  be  accomplished  by  temporary 
loans  which,  after  serving  once,  come  back  and  then  go 
again  and  repeat  their  work  and  continue  thus  to  go  and 
come,  reproducing  their  blessings  year  after  year. 

Assured  that  early  possession  of  this  fund  would  as- 
sist us  greatly  in  our  work,  it  was  by  the  Board  at  its  first 
meeting  ordered : 

"That  of  all  funds  derived  from  gifts,  devises,  and  be- 
quests, fifty  per  cent  shall  go  into  and  be  a  part  of  the 
loan  fund,  unless  otherwise  directed  by  the  donors. 

"That  out  of  all  moneys  received  from  collections 
through  the  Annual  Conferences  for  the  first  fiscal  year, 
not  less  than  twenty  per  cent  shall  be  transferred  to  the 
loan  fund,  after  paying  the  salary  of  the  Secretary  and 
incidental  expenses." 

A  by-law  providing  for  a  committee  to  secure  and 
manage  this  fund  has  been  enacted  and  the  committee 
appointed. 

173 


DAVID    MORTON 


In  March,  1884,  the  Baard  determined  that  "sums 
of  five  thousand  dollars  and  upward  donated  by  one 
or  more  persons  may,  by  direction  of  the  contributors, 
constitute  a  separate  loan  fund  and  be  named  by  them." 
In  accordance  with  this  provision,  it  was  particularly 
fitting  that  the  first  of  these  "living  monuments,"  as 
Dr.  Morton  designated  them,  should  be  created  in  hon- 
or of  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  who  had  so  recently  died. 
Since  then  a  large  number  of  these  "memorial  loan 
funds'*  have  been  established  in  the  name  of  those 
whose  memory  it  is  desired  to  honor  and  perpetuate. 

Loan  funds  differ  from  all  other  forms  of  endow- 
ment in  that  ordinary  endowments  provide  for  the  ex- 
penditure and  consumption  of  the  interest,  while  the 
loan  funds  provide  that  neither  principal  nor  interest 
shall  be  consumed,  in  whole  or  in  part,  for  any  purpose. 
The  principal  is  loaned  to  the  very  person  whom  it  was 
designed  to  help,  the  purpose  being  to  give  temporary 
aid.  Contrast  this  with  ordinary  endowments,  the 
principal  of  which  is  invested  in  stocks  or  loaned  to 
any  responsible  borrower,  the  interest  only  being  used 
in  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  gift.  As  an  illus- 
tration, the  following  example  is  convincing:  In  hve 
years  a  twenty-five-hundred-dollar  loan  fund,  divided 
into  five  parts  and  loaned  to  five  Churches  at  four  per 
cent  interest,  insures  the  building  of  ten  churches,  as- 
sisting them  to  the  amount  of  seven  thousand  and  fif- 

174 


DAVID    MORTON 


teen  dollars  and  sixty-one  cents  and  at  the  same  time 
increases  the  loan  fund  by  five  hundred  and  forty-one 
dollars  and  sixty-five  cents. 

In  March,  1886,  an  amendment  to  the  charter  of  the 
Board  was  secured  providing  for  increasing  the  loan 
funds  on  the  annuity  plan,  such 

Annuity  payable  annually  to  the  order  of  the  person 
or  persons  making  such  donations ;  but  all  such  amounts 
so  received  shall  be  loaned  by  said  Board  on  adequate 
security  or  securities,  and  the  aggregate  annuities  that  the 
Board  shall  assume  to  pay  shall  never  be  allowed  to  ex- 
ceed one-half  of  the  annual  interest  receivable  on  the 
loans  made  by  said  Board. 

This  quotation  is  made  to  show  how  this  sacred 
money  was  made  absolutely  safe  to  those  contributing 
it.  This  plan  has  proven  one  of  the  most  attractive  of 
all  the  methods  devised  for  raising  money.  Those  who 
are  not  able  to  get  along  without  the  income  from  their 
property  may  pay  into  the  treasury  of  the  Board  an 
amount  of  money  and  receive  from  the  Board  in  return 
therefor  a  certificate  of  annuity  which  obligates  the 
Board  to  pay  annually  to  the  investor  or  designated 
beneficiary  during  life  a  sum  not  to  exceed  an  agreed 
per  cent  of  the  amount  involved,  provided  that  upon 
the  death  of  the  beneficiary  the  payment  of  interest  shall 
cease  and  the  principal  shall  become  the  absolute  prop- 
erty of  the  Board. 

The  annuitant  receives  his  income  in  regular  install- 
175 


DAVID    MORTON 


ments,  and  the  money  is  at  work  building  churches, 
and  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  being  spread  abroad  in  the 
earth.  As  an  illustration  of  the  early  leaflets  issued  by 
the  Board,  one  of  them  dealing  with  annuities  is  here 
reproduced : 

Would  you  like  to  make  a  good  investment  ?  One  that 
will  be  perfectly  safe?  That  will  pay  a  better  rate  of 
interest  than  any  other  safe,  long-time  investment?  One 
that  will  give  you  no  trouble  except  to  go  to  the  nearest 
bank  every  six  months  and  collect  your  money?  That 
will  relieve  you  from  ever  having  to  reinvest  your  capital  ? 

Would  you  like  to  make  an  investment  that,  while  it 
offers  all  the  advantages  named  above,  will  at  the  same 
time  put  your  money  to  work  for  the  Saviour  ?  One  that 
will  help  to  build  churches  or  parsonages  while  it  sup- 
ports you  to  the  day  of  your  death ; 

If  you  would,  invest  one  hundred  or  five  hundred  or 
five  thousand  dollars  in  an  annuity  certificate  of  this 
Board.  It  is  a  contract  pledging  the  Board  and  all  its 
assets — mortgages  on  real  estate — to  pay  you  the  semi- 
annual interest  agreed  upon  as  long  as  you  live,  with  the 
understanding  that  at  your  death  the  principal  shall  vest 
absolutely  in  this  Board,  to  constitute  a  perpetual  loan 
fund ;  and  if  amounting  to  $5,000  or  more,  to  bear  your 
name  or  any  other  that  you  may  give  it — an  everlasting 
memorial. 

We  now  have  several  such  funds,  and  the  donors  have 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  their  money  at  work  for  Christ, 
while  they  are  assured  of  a  certain  income  from  it  as  long 
as  they  live. 

Is  not  that  better  than  to  lend  your  money  to  a  neigh- 
bor who  may  break?    Or  to  invest  in  bonds  that  m^y  be 

176 


DAVID    MORTON 


repudiated?  Or  to  lend  upon  a  mortgage  and  have  to 
hire  a  lawyer  to  enforce  it?  It  is  better  than  a  govern- 
ment bond.    It  is  better  than  a  will. 

At  the  annual  meeting  in  1887  the  loan  funds  were 
much  talked  of  and  the  whole  system  critically  exam- 
ined. Resolutions  were  adopted  urging  the  organiza- 
tion of  special  Conference  loan  funds  and  of  parsonage 
loan  funds.  The  utility  of  loans  as  compared  with  do- 
nations, the  practicability  and  method  of  collecting 
promptly  at  maturity  sums  loaned  to  Churches,  the 
best  means  for  increasing  these  funds  and  adding  oth- 
ers to  them,  were  special  points  concerning  which  in- 
formation was  sought. 

On  no  part  of  Church  Extension  work  did  Dr.  Mor- 
ton expend  more  energy  than  upon  the  development  of 
the  loan  fund  idea.  It  has  not  been  improved  upon 
since  his  time.  By  pen,  from  the  pulpit,  from  the  plat- 
form, by  private  interview,  he  solicited  money.  In 
every  annual  report  the  subject  is  prominently  men- 
tioned. Well-laid  campaigns  were  planned  and  exe- 
cuted. At  one  time  a  canvass  of  twenty-one  days  was 
made  by  Bishop  Galloway  and  Dr.  Morton  in  the 
interest  of  the  Paine  Loan  Fund,  during  which  fifteen 
of  the  principal  towns  and  cities  of  the  State  of  Missis- 
sippi were  visited.  Another  canvass  of  twenty-seven 
days  in  the  interest  of  the  Andrew  Loan  Fund  was 
made  by  Bishop  Hargrove  and  Dr.  Morton,  during 
12  177 


DAVID    MORTON 


which  thirty-three  points  in  the  State  of  Alabama  were 
visited.  At  all  these  places  meetings  were  held,  ad- 
dresses delivered,  and  collections  taken. 

It  was  especially  appropriate  that  at  his  death  the 
Board  should  establish  the  David  Morton  Loan  Fund. 
With  such  a  memorial  he  may  rest  from  his  labors,  and 
his  works  do  follow  him. 

From  the  first  Dr.  Morton  had  been  convinced  that 
it  was  the  duty  of  the  Board  to  provide  in  every  way 
possible  for  the  building  of  better  church  houses.  He 
advocated  the  policy  of  going  further  than  giving  and 
lending  money.  He  opposed  leaving  entirely  to  the 
judgment  of  the  building  committee  of  the  congrega- 
tion helped,  the  selection  of  the  plans  for  the  building 
and  the  choice  of  the  lot. 

Building  committees  without  the  aid  of  architects  or 
other  competent  advisers  could  not  be  expected  to  erect 
houses  of  worship  that  would  be  patterns  of  either 
beauty  or  utility.  Outside  the  large  cities  church  ar- 
chitecture was  almost  unknown  when  the  Board  of 
Church  Extension  began  its  work.  Dr.  Morton  saw 
that  it  would  not  be  wise  to  give  money  for  the  erection 
of  churches  badly  adapted  to  their  intended  use.  He 
stated  that  the  improvement  of  church  architecture 
was  one  of  the  prime  ends  to  be  served  by  the  Board, 
and  early  in  1883  a  contract  was  made  with  an  archi- 
tect to  supply  plans   for  churches.     Each   plan   had 

178 


C    3 
13    t^ 


0) 

IS 
o  ^ 


DAVID    MORTON 


drawings,  specifications  and  estimates,  and  along  with 
it  a  contract  to  be  signed  by  the  builders.  All  of  this 
was  furnished  at  a  nominal  price  far  below  that  which 
any  congregation  could  possibly  secure  it  for  on  its 
own  account.  A  catalogue  of  these  plans  was  printed 
and  distributed  by  the  thousands  and  had  a  decided 
influence  in  arousing  a  sentiment  for  better  church 
buildings  throughout  the  Church.  In  the  quadrennium 
ending  in  1890  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  plans  had 
been  sold,  an  increase  of  one  hundred  and  forty-seven 
over  the  number  sold  in  the  first  quadrennium.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  church  architecture 
in  the  Church. 

Along  with  the  development  of  church  plans  came 
the  recognition  of  the  necessity  for  properly  located 
lots  of  the  proper  size.  As  early  as  1887  the  Board 
was  impressing  upon  all  Churches  applying  for  aid  the 
necessity  for  securing  building  lots  of  ample  size  as 
well  as  convenience  of  location  and  soon  thereafter 
announced  that  these  factors  would  weigh  much  in 
granting  appropriations. 

It  was  a  logical  step  after  this  to  an  insurance  re- 
quirement ;  and  so  again  the  Board  protected  its  funds, 
as  well  as  the  congregation  helped,  by  directing  the 
Secretary  to  reserve  out  of  the  amount  granted  a  sum 
sufficient  to  pay  for  insuring  the  church  or  parsonage, 
as  the  case  might  be. 

179 


DAVID    MORTON 


These  three  principles  thus  early  established — good 
building  plans,  lots  of  ample  size  properly  located,  and 
insurance  on  all  buildings — have  become  the  settled 
policy  of  the  Board.  They  have  tremendously  influ- 
enced for  the  better  the  character  of  the  physical  plant 
of  our  houses  of  worship  throughout  the  Church.  To- 
day, more  than  ever  before,  the  beauty  and  utility  of 
the  church  building  are  being  considered. 

As  early  as  1886  the  Kentucky  mountain  region  had 
become  a  matter  of  serious  concern  to  the  Board  be- 
cause of  its  lack  of  church  buildings.  The  matter  was 
carefully  considered  by  the  Kentucky  Conference, 
money  was  pledged,  and  Dr.  Morton  made  a  special 
trip  to  look  over  the  needs  of  the  field  in  1887.  The 
account  of  this  tour  is  both  interesting  and  enlighten- 
ing and  is  reproduced  here  for  these  reasons : 

A  trip  of  ten  days  to  Southeastern  Kentucky,  made  in 
the  interest  of  church-building,  brought  me  into  nine 
counties,  seven  of  whose  capitals  I  visited.  The  distance 
traveled  after  leaving  the  railroad  was  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  over  as  rough  roads  as  I  have  ever  seen. 
A  stout  spring  wagon  and  two  good  horses,  managed  by 
an  expert  driver,  enabled  us  to  make  the  journey  without 
serious  discomfort.  At  any  rate,  I  felt  that  I  should  not 
complain  when  I  met  an  ex-chief  justice  plodding  along 
on  a  sore-backed  horse  and  a  candidate  for  governor  and 
a  city  editor  mounted  on  a  mule  each,  wending  their  way 
through  the  narrow  defiles  and  swampy  creeks. 

The  mountain  regions  of  the  State  have  ever  been 
180 


DAVID    MORTON 


strangely  destitute  of  church  edifices.  Though  regularly 
organized  churches,  enjoying  the  ministrations  of  faithful 
men  who  both  preached  and  administered  the  ordinances, 
have  existed  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  State,  yet 
both  preachers  and  people  have  seemed  to  have  but  little 
concern  about  a  house  and  a  home  in  which  to  care  for 
the  flock.  In  the  country  the  schoolhouse  and  in  the 
town  the  courthouse  were  deemed  sufficient,  and  where 
neither  was  convenient  a  private  dwelling  was  made  to 
answer  the  purpose ;  and  hence  a  state  of  affairs  at  once 
anomalous  and  unfortunate  has  existed.  This  custom,  so 
destructive  of  permanency  and  so  subversive  of  the  rev- 
erence which  should  ever  attach  to  a  place  of  worship,  has 
gone  far  to  hinder  the  progress  of  the  gospel  in  these  re- 
p"ions.  Five  of  the  county  seats  recently  visited  have  not 
now  and  never  had  a  church  edifice  of  any  sort  within 
their  corporate  limits.  One  of  these  towns  was  estab- 
lished sixty-seven  years  ago,  another  forty,  another  about 
thirty,  another  about  ten,  and  the  last  about  three  years 
ago.  In  the  country  traversed  we  saw  outside  the  towns 
but  three  or  four  church  buildings,  and  these  are  owned 
by  the  Primitive  Baptists,  whose  flickering  light  is  little 
else  than  a  sample  of  a  fast-vanishing  civilization.  The 
proper  conduct  of  Church  work  under  such  conditions  is 
simply  impossible;  and  I  am  glad  to  note  the  fact  that 
the  various  Churches  of  the  State  seem  determined  not 
only  to  send  missionaries,  but  to  build  houses  in  these 
needy  regions. 

The  object  of  my  visit  was  to  excite,  if  possible,  in 
the  minds  of  the  people  who  live  there  an  interest  in 
church-building  and  to  induce  them,  with  the  promise  of 
aid  from  our  Church  Extension  Board,  to  make  efforts 
to  help  themselves.    The  plan  worked  admirably.    At  the 

i8i 


DAVID    MORTON 


first  place  visited  a  fine  lot  and  $500  were  given  by  the 
people.  At  the  next,  an  eligible  lot.  At  the  third  mea- 
sures were  inaugurated  that  will  insure  a  church  within 
a  year.  At  the  fourth,  and  the  youngest  of  all,  a  lot  and 
$200  were  provided  and  $200  more  promised.  At  the 
fifth,  a  lot  and  $600  were  pledged.  Thus  within  a  few 
days  nearly  $2,000,  estimating  the  ground  at  its  cash 
value,  was  pledged;  and  this,  with  what  the  Church  Ex- 
tension Board  will  give,  assures  the  building  of  at  least 
five  churches  in  five  county  seats  which  are  now  and  have 
always  been  without  houses  of  worship. 

One  thousand  dollars  given  by  Maj.  C.  Dewese,  of 
Carroll  County,  Kentucky,  and  another  thousand  added 
by  the  Kentucky  Conference  at  its  last  session  enabled 
the  Church  Extension  Board  to  do  its  work. 

Dr.  Morton  was  again  elected  in  the  fall  of  1889  at 
the  head  of  his  delegation  to  the  General  Conference 
of  1890,  which  met  at  St.  Louis,  and  was  assigned  to 
the  Committee  on  Episcopacy,  which  by  general  usage 
is  regarded  as  the  leading  committee  of  the  body.  The 
writer  of  these  pages  happens  to  know  that  he  was 
most  active  in  the  discharge  of  his  special  duties  and 
at  the  same  time  kept  a  keen  eye  on  everything  that  con- 
cerned Church  Extension. 

He  had  begun  to  feel  the  need  of  more  help  in  his 
oflftce  and  was  very  anxious  to  have  an  Assistant  Secre- 
tary elected.  Largely  on  his  representations  the  Com- 
mittee on  Church  Extension  brought  in  an  early  and 
favorable  report  on  the  subject.     This  was  followed, 

182 


DAVID    MORTON 


however,  by  a  minority  report  signed  by  the  Chairman, 
Hon.  R.  W.  Peatross,  of  Virginia.  The  discussion 
that  followed  was  exceedingly  vigorous.  Mr.  Peatross 
is  an  uncommonly  able  lawyer  and  spoke  with  the  di- 
rectness and  vigor  of  a  man  who  is  in  the  habit  of 
driving  his  points  home  on  a  judge  and  jury.  Every- 
body listened  to  him  with  the  greatest  respect.  I  have 
known  few  speakers  in  the  General  Conference  to  get 
a  better  hearing;  but  he  was  on  Dr.  Morton's  own 
ground,  and  that  fact  put  him  at  a  disadvantage.  The 
Daily  Advocate  went  out  of  its  way  in  the  next  issue 
to  make  editorial  comment  on  the  debate,  as  follows : 

Dr.  Morton's  address  to  the  Conference  on  Church 
Extension  matters  was  earnest,  luminous,  and  convincing. 
He  knows  his  work  and  loves  it.  He  was  listened  to  with 
profound  attention,  due  to  the  utterances  of  a  faithful 
servant  of  the  Church  concerning  this  department  of  our 
Church  work.  There  was  some  difference  of  opinion  as 
to  the  policy  to  be  pursued  hereafter,  but  there  was  but 
one  sentiment  as  to  the  fidelity  and  efficiency  of  the  ad- 
ministration. The  debate  that  followed  was  one  of  the 
most  able  and  vigorous  that  has  yet  taken  place  during 
the  session.  The  speakers  took  full  time  and  put  in  their 
full  strength. 

It  is  almost  useless  to  add  that  the  majority  report 
prevailed  by  a  large  majority.  Dr.  James  C.  Morris, 
one  of  the  purest  and  strongest  men  in  the  whole 
Church,  was  elected  Assistant  Secretary.     But  after 

183 


DAVID    MORTON 


less  than  two  years  the  pull  of  the  pastorate,  to  which 
he  was  profoundly  devoted,  became  so  strong  on  his 
heart  that  he  resigned  his  connectional  position  to  re- 
sume his  loved  employment  in  the  ranks.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded in  office  by  Mr.  Wilbur  F.  Barclay,  a  layman 
and  a  lawyer  of  the  highest  character  and  great  abil- 
ity, who  was  also,  as  his  father  had  been  before  him, 
a  most  intimate  friend  of  Dr.  Morton.  The  two  men 
pulled  together  in  the  same  harness  for  many  years. 
It  was  a  capital  arrangement  in  every  way.  They  un- 
derstood each  other  and  loved  each  other.  No  mis- 
understanding ever  arose  between  them. 

That  Dr.  Morton  would  be  reelected  General  Secre- 
tary was  as  certain  before  the  event  as  after  it.  When 
the  ballots  were  counted,  they  proved  to  be  almost 
unanimous,  only  five  scattering  ones  having  been  cast 
against  him.  Such  an  occurrence  has  been  unusually 
rare  in  Methodist  history.  It  was  a  just  tribute  to  a 
man  that  had  accomplished  results. 

In  the  first  and  second  quadrenniums  of  its  existence 
the  Board  completed  its  organization,  laid  its  financial 
policy  on  secure  foundations,  and  established  itself  fully 
as  an  integral  part  of  the  connectional  policy  of  the 
Church.  These  were  busy  years  for  Dr.  Morton,  years 
of  unremitting  toil.  At  the  beginning  of  the  third 
quadrennium  the  Board  found  itself  prepared  to  do 
the  work  assigned  it  in  a  much  larger  way  than  ever 

184 


DAVID    MORTON 


before.  With  the  momentum  it  had  acquired,  it  was 
inevitable  that  it  would  now  go  forward  with  increas- 
ing rapidity.  With  his  mind  released  from  the  harass- 
ing details  of  inaugurating  a  large  enterprise,  Dr.  Mor- 
ton found  himself  free  to  develop  the  plans  already 
laid  for  the  strengthening  of  Zion.  The  work  became 
heavier  and  heavier  each  year.  In  the  third  quadren- 
nium  the  Board  held  four  regular  annual  meetings  and 
twelve  stated  quarterly  meetings.  Its  Executive  Com- 
mittee met  eleven  times ;  its  Committee  on  Loan  Funds, 
twice ;  its  Committee  on  Applications,  fifteen  times ;  and 
its  Finance  Committee,  twenty-one  times.  Attendance 
upon  these  numerous  necessary  meetings  proved  quite 
a  tax,  especially  upon  those  members  residing  in  Louis- 
ville, all  of  whom  were  daily  engaged  in  active  profes- 
sional or  business  life. 

In  the  tenth  annual  report  we  get  the  viewpoint  of 
the  Secretary  on  the  future  of  Church  Extension  as 
related  to  the  pastors : 

After  extended  and  close  observation  reaching  over 
nearly  ten  years  in  this  field  of  labor,  I  am  thoroughly 
satisfied  that  the  destiny  of  our  work  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  preachers  in  charge,  the  pastors  of  the  Church.  If 
they  will  follow  the  directions  of  the  Discipline  and  "take 
up  a  collection  in  every  congregation  annually  for  Church 
Extension,"  success  is  inevitable ;  if  they  do  not,  failure  is 
an  assured  certainty.  The  most  earnest  pleading  by  the 
Board,  the  most  piquant  writing  by  our  best  editors,  the 

i8s 


DAVID    MORTON 


most  dashing  campaign  of  the  Conferences  by  secretaries, 
the  employment  of  the  apparently  most  apposite  expedi- 
ents will  not  avail  anything  like  so  much  as  the  steady, 
earnest,  systematic  canvass  of  each  pastoral  charge  by 
the  preacher  sent  to  serve  it.  We  do  not  undervalue  the 
service  of  bishops,  Board,  presiding  elders,  and  editors, 
for  there  is  much  to  be  done  by  each  of  these,  but  to  the 
hand-to-hand  work  of  the  pastor  we  look  for  the  result 
so  much  to  be  desired. 

In  1894  the  General  Conference  met  at  Memphis, 
and  Dr.  Morton  was  again  reelected  Secretary  of  the 
Board  with  practically  no  opposition.  It  was  to  be  his 
last  General  Conference  and  his  last  quadrennium. 
The  work  of  the  Board  was  reviewed  and  its  methods 
examined.  The  Board  had  passed  through  the  finan- 
cial storm  and  stress  of  the  panic  of  1893.  Dr.  Mor- 
ton said:  "The  twelfth  year  of  the  existence  of  this 
Board  was  one  of  extreme  and  unexampled  hardship 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land,  and  the 
financial  panic  through  which  the  country  passed  was 
not  without  its  effects  upon  our  work." 

There  were  several  troublesome  problems  of  admin- 
istration repeatedly  arising  during  the  preceding  quad- 
rennium, among  them  the  delinquent  borrower,  the 
question  of  fire  insurance  on  churches,  limiting  the  size 
of  donations,  and  appeals  by  pastors  to  the  Church  at 
large  outside  the  regular  channels  of  Church  Extension. 
These  were  vexed  questions  then  and  to  a  certain  ex- 

186 


Three  Thousand  Eight  Hundred  and  Seventeen  Methodist  Churches 


•^ 


DAVID    MORTON 


tent  are  still.  A  solution  in  every  instance  has  not  yet 
been  reached  that  is  satisfactory  to  all. 

A  successful  memorial  to  this  General  Conference 
resulted  in  the  reciprocal  naming  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Missions  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Church  Extension  to  membership  in  the  sister 
Board.  In  this  way  the  two  Boards  became  correlated 
and  much  closer  relations  established.  This  arrange- 
ment has  continued  ever  since,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Missions  sitting  in  the  meetings  of  the  Board 
of  Church  Extension,  and  vice  versa. 

This  same  General  Conference  authorized  the  crea- 
tion of  City  Church  Extension  Boards.  In  his  twelfth 
annual  report  Dr.  Morton  took  advanced  ground  on 
the  necessity  for  such  boards.  His  experience  as  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Louisville  District  years  before  had 
shown  him  the  necessity  for  coordinating  the  forces 
of  all  city  churches  in  planning  for  future  needs  and 
working  toward  definite  ends.  He  urged  this  step  in 
these  words : 

The  time  has  fully  arrived  when,  in  my  opinion,  provi- 
sion should  be  made  in  our  organic  law  for  the  organiza- 
tion of  local  boards  of  Church  Extension  in  our  cities  for 
the  purpose  of  further  stimulating  and  aiding  in  the  erec- 
tion of  churches,  with  special  reference  to  reaching  and 
evangelizing  the  "unchurched  masses"  of  our  urban  pop- 
ulation. The  mass  of  the  morally  halt,  lame,  and  blind  of 
our  day  is  not  to  be  found  In  rural  byways  and  hedges, 

187 


DAVID    MORTON 


but  in  the  alleys  and  slums  of  our  cities ;  and  if  we  would 
induce  them  to  partake  of  the  gospel  feast,  it  must  be 
spread  before  their  eyes. 

For  fifteen  years  the  Board  had  been  so  busily  en- 
gaged in  providing  homes  for  others  that  it  had  not 
taken  time  and  the  money  to  get  one  for  itself.  But  in 
1897  Mrs.  Catherine  H.  Wilson,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Mor- 
ton, of  Hopkinsville,  Presley  Meguiar,  its  President, 
and  David  Morton,  its  Secretary,  purchased  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Board  the  house  then  occupied  by  it  at 
705  West  Chestnut  Street,  Louisville,  Kentucky.  The 
parties  making  the  gift  reserved  life  annuities.  Thus 
for  the  first  time  the  Board  became  its  own  landlord 
and  possessed  permanent  quarters. 

It  is  well  to  record  here  the  names  of  the  men  who 
at  various  times  and  for  terms  of  office  of  different 
lengths  constituted  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
during  the  sixteen  years  of  Dr.  Morton's  secretaryship. 
They  were  his  co-workers  and  associates,  and  able  men 
they  were  and  strong  men  in  the  councils  of  the 
Church.  The  great  results  attained  could  not  have 
been  accomplished  without  their  wise  management.  It 
is  fitting  that  they  should  appear  in  the  biography  of 
David  Morton.    He  would  have  wanted  it  so. 

The  bishops  were:  George  F.  Pierce,  Hubbard  H. 
Kavanaugh,  Holland  N.  McTyeire,  John  C.  Keener, 
Alpheus  W.  Wilson,  Linus  Parker,  John  C.  Granbery, 

186 


DAVID    MORTON 


Robert  K.  Hargrove,  William  W.  Duncan,  Charles  B. 
Galloway,  Eugene  R.  Hendrix,  Joseph  S.  Key,  Atticus 
G.  Haygood,  O.  P.  Fitzgerald. 

The  clerical  members  were :  W.  T.  Harris,  Memphis 
Conference;  F.  B.  Carroll,  Denver  Conference;  C.  I. 
Vandeventer,  Missouri  Conference ;  H.  C.  Settle,  Lou- 
isville Conference;  J.  C.  Morris,  Louisville  Confer- 
ence; Joseph  Emery,  Columbia  Conference;  W.  F. 
Compton,  Pacific  Conference ;  C.  E.  Brown,  Northwest 
Texas  Conference;  S.  K.  Cox,  Baltimore  Conference; 
O.  P.  Fitzgerald,  Pacific  Conference;  M.  H.  Neely, 
North  Texas  Conference;  Beverly  W.  Bond,  Baltimore 
Conference;  S.  M.  Hosmer,  North  Alabama  Confer- 
ence ;  R.  H.  Parker,  Los  Angeles  Conference ;  John  W. 
Lewis,  Louisville  Conference;  W.  F.  Cook,  North 
Georgia  Conference ;  H.  C.  Morrison,  ex  oMcio,  Sec- 
retary Board  of  Missions. 

The  laymen  were:  J.  S.  Lithgow,  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky; Presley  Meguiar,  Louisville,  Kentucky;  G.  D. 
Shands,  Senatobia,  Mississippi;  Charles  S.  Grubbs, 
Louisville,  Kentucky;  J.  H.  Carlisle,  Spartanburg, 
South  Carolina ;  John  W.  Proctor,  Danville,  Kentucky ; 
James  G.  Carter,  Louisville,  Kentucky ;  John  L.  Wheat, 
Louisville,  Kentucky;  Charles  R.  Long,  Louisville, 
Kentucky;  R.  B.  Gilbert,  Louisville,  Kentucky;  John 
W.  Paulett,  Knoxville,  Tennessee ;  George  M.  Rogers, 

189 


DAVID    MORTON 


Louisville,    Kentucky;   Presley   H.   Tapp,   Louisville, 
Kentucky. 

The  following  exhibit  of  the  work  done  by  the  Board 
of  Church  Extension  during  the  first  sixteen  years  of 
its  existence  under  the  secretaryship  of  Dr.  Morton  has 
been  prepared  by  the  present  Secretary,  Rev.  W.  F. 
McMurry,  D.D.,  from  the  records  of  the  office  for 
publication  in  this  biography.  The  trouble  and  pains 
to  which  he  has  gone  in  order  to  do  this  are  gratefully 
acknowledged.  A  study  of  this  exhibit  will  clearly 
show  the  progress  and  importance  of  the  work  in  these 
formative  years  of  the  Board's  existence  and  the  mag- 
nitude of  it  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Morton's  death.  It  is 
enough  to  state  here  that  three  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  seventeen  churches  were  aided,  nearly  one  million 
dollars  was  raised  for  church-building  purposes,  and 
that  in  the  last  quadrennium  the  rate  of  church-building 
averaged  six  and  one-half  churches  per  week,  or  nearly 
one  for  each  calendar  day. 

190 


DAVID    MORTON 


BOARD  OF  CHURCH  EXTENSION,  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH,  SOUTH. 

Table  Showing  Number  of  Churches  and  Parsonages  Aided  and 
Amount  of  Aid,  from  Beginning  to  March  31,  1898. 


Alabama 

Baltimore 

Central  Mexico 

Central  Texas 

China  Mission 

Columbia. 

Denver 

East  Columbia 

East  Oklahoma 

Florida 

German  Mission , 

Holston , 

Illinois 

Japan  Mission 

Kentucky , 

Little  Rock , 

Los  Angeles 

Louisiana 

Louisville , 

Memphis , 

Mexican  Border , 

Mississippi 

Missouri , 

Montana 

New  Mexico 

North  Alabama 

North  Arkansas , 

North  Carolina 

North  Georgia. 

North  Mississippi 

North  Texas 

Northwest  Texas. , 

Pacific 

Pacific  Mexican 

St.  Louis 

South  Carolina , 

South  Georgia , 

Southwest  Missouri .... 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Texas  Mexican.. , 

Upper  South  Carolina. 

Virginia 

Western  North  Carolina 
Western  Virginia  .... 

West  Oklahoma 

West  Texas 


Total. 


i»3 
124 

4 

27 

32 
32 

73 

103 
XO 

105 
37 
3 

79 
103 
30 
79 
90 
ISO 
14 
132 
136 
19 
21 
139 
141 
140 
205 
'53 
no 
29 
36 
2 

82 
87 

141 

121 
65 
37 


3.817  $947.294  00 


$  641  00 

•.4SS  00 


3.355  SJ 
3. 141  76 
1,900  00 
3.592  10 
S.031  78 

200  00 

3.354  55 
120  00 


2.503  65 
1,753  00 
4,481  32 
3,414  30 
1. 557  00 
1,287  00 


1. 130  52 

636  40 

4.545  02 

1,900  00 

I.2S5  45 
1,810  00 

320  00 
1.955  00 

993  50 
a.040  55 
1,150  00 
4.247  »5 


4.692  95 


88048 
2,015  76 
2,266  02 
3.  "6  34 


1,608  00 

205  00 

576  00 

3'§35  00 

3.818  94 


Total  Amount. 


37,511  00 

47,39000 

1,116  00 

38,600  00 

400  00 
12.397  5' 
39,651  76 
17,600  00 
13.355  »o 
49.577  78 
1,453  00 

21.455  55 
4.551  00 
2,145  00 
25.593  65 
.35.131  00 
35.271  3» 
2a,335  20 
30,49700 
33,160  00 
10,738  00 
16,432  53 
38,436  40 
15.334  63 
18,333  00 
22,532  45 
28,794  00 
30,13s  00 
37.956  00 
23.480  50 
27.290  55 
11,99400 
43,464  25 
700  00 
20,4979s 
8,553  00 
24.63s  4S 
33.796  76 
37,04403 
29,520  34 
4,141  00 
14,031  00 
33,870  00 
15,183  00 
18,923  00 
16,519  00 
30,553  94 


604  $84,685  65  $1,031.97965 


191 


DAVID    MORTON 


BOARD  OF  CHURCH  EXTENSION,  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH,  SOUTH. 

Table  Showing  Annual  Receipts  on  Assessments,  Specials  and 

Loan  Funds,  and  Annual  Increase  of  Loan  Fund  Capital, 

Etc.,  from  June  i,  1882,  to  March  31,  1898. 


Year 

Ending 

March  31. 


1883., 


1 886. 
1887. 
1888. 
1889. 
1890. 
1891. 
1892. 
1893. 
1894. 

1897. 


Amount  Paid 
on  General 
Assessment 
Account  dur- 
ing the  Tear. 


$     2,302  61 
33.833  98 

3S.8S3  48 
3S.077  90 
38,057  48 
45,764  08 
51.302  14 
SS.3S2  " 
62,445  40 

67,359  44 
62,637  22 

55.369  40 
53,503  32 
56.675  40 
S1'SS7  68 
58,236  88 


Amount  Re- 
ceived on 
Specials 
during  the 
Year. 


$  2,437  00 
691  40 
1,16994 
2,04s  82 
1,104  50 
1,871  58 
1,497  00 
2,701  12 
3.793  17 
1,799  63 
2,639  72 
1.267  55 

2,795  37 
3,467  22 
1,654  CO 
9.154  (>i 


Amount  Re- 
ceived on  Loan 
Funds  during 
the  Year. 


2,740  U 
18,302  II 
10,229  63 
2,431  18 
5,638  91 
8,763  62 

5,367  74 
7.094  97 
7,001  15 
11,054  87 
'2.533  II 
5,367  59 
6,898  00 
5.505  00 
19,787  22 


Annual 

Interest 

Earned  Less 

Annuities, 

Etc. 


7075 
527  50 

757  75 
I.3S4  52 

2.382  91 
2,558  21 
3.121  68 

3.383  20 
3,001  52 
3.164  81 
3,315  36 
2,547  44 
3,891  64 


Increase  of 
Loan  Fund 
Capital  dur- 
ing the  Year. 


2,740  II 
18,302  II 
10,300  38 

2,958  68 

6,39666 
10,118  14 

7,750  6i 

9.653  J8 
10,122  83 
14,438  07 
15,534  63 

8,532  40 
10,213  36 

8,052 
23,678 


Loan  Fund 

Capital  at  the 

Close  of  the 

Year. 


$  2,740  II 
21  042  22 
31,342  60 
34,301  28 
40,697  94 
50,816  08 

58,566  73 
68,219  91 
78,342  74 
92,780  81 

1 16)847  84 
127,061  20 
I3S."3  64 
158,792  50 


Total...  $767,328  63  $40,089  63 


$128,715  21  $30,077  29  $158,792  50 


In  the  field  of  Church  Extension  David  Morton  la- 
bored for  almost  sixteen  years.  He  would  say  to  his 
most  intimate  friends:  "I  believe  God  intended  that 
I  should  do  this  work  and  that  my  previous  life  has 
been  a  training  for  it."  What  our  Church  Extension 
work  is,  David  Morton  made  it — that  is  to  say,  he  laid 
its  broad  and  secure  foundations.  First  and  last,  he 
had  many  competent  and  worthy  helpers,  and  since  he 
has  passed  away  his  plans  have  been  successfully  car- 
ried on  by  those  who  have  come  after  him;  but  they 
have  always  been  in  substance  his  plans.  No  one  can 
doubt  where  the  chief  credit  belongs ;  and  no  one,  so 
far  as  I  know,  has  ever  been  disposed  to  doubt  it. 

192 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Closing  His  Career. 

T^OWARD  the  end  of  the  quadrennium  of  1894  to 
*  1898  it  became  known  to  his  close  friends  that  Dr. 
Morton's  health  was  not  as  vigorous  as  usual,  but  it 
did  not  occur  to  any  of  theni  that  he  was  approaching 
the  end  of  his  journey.  In  the  fall  of  1897  his  Con- 
ference once  more  honored  itself  by  electing  him  as 
leader  of  its  delegation  to  the  General  Conference 
which  was  to  meet  in  Baltimore  in  May,  1898.  He 
was  looking  forward  to  the  gathering  with  deep  inter- 
est, and  throughout  the  whole  Church  there  was  no 
little  quiet  satisfaction  over  the  thought  that  he  was 
again  to  bring  the  benefit  of  his  matured  judgment  into 
the  deliberations  of  its  supreme  synod.  Through  the 
Winter  he  kept  up  his  spirits,  and  as  Spring  approached 
he  was  laying  all  his  plans  for  the  future.  Early  in 
March,  1898,  I  had  a  cheerful  letter  from  him  telling 
me  that  he  expected  to  be  in  Nashville  on  the  evening 
of  the  tenth  of  that  month  and  asking  me  to  meet 
him  at  a  hotel  for  a  conversation  concerning  mat- 
ters relating  to  the  welfare  of  the  Church.  The 
prospect  of  having  such  an  interview  was  exceedingly 
agreeable  to  me,  for  I  had  learned  to  love  him  as  a 
13  193 


DAVID    MORTON 


son  loves  his  father.  It  was  a  terrible  shock,  therefore, 
when  the  afternoon  paper  of  March  9  brought  the 
tidings  of  his  death.  In  every  part  of  the  Church, 
moreover,  from  the  Ohio  River  to  Tampa  Bay  and 
from  Baltimore  to  San  Francisco,  a  deep  feeling  of 
sorrow  was  experienced.  It  is  very  likely  that  there 
was  not  a  minister  in  the  whole  Church  that  did  not 
personally  know  him  and  that  was  not  regretful  over 
his  demise.  Among  the  laity  also  he  had  friends  by 
th€  tens  of  thousands,  who  were  deeply  grieved  that 
they  should  see  his  face  and  hear  his  voice  no  more. 

On  Saturday,  March  5th,  while  working  at  his  desk, 
Dr.  Morton  reached  for  a  paper  lying  in  a  basket 
brought  from  Mexico,  and  in  doing  so  stuck  a  small 
splinter  from  the  basket  in  the  thumb  of  his  left  hand. 
He  paid  little  attention  to  it  at  the  time.  On  the 
following  morning,  Sunday,  he  had  an  appointment 
to  preach  at  Asbury  Chapel,  in  the  city,  and  kept  the 
appointment,  though  his  thumb  by  this  time  had  be- 
gim  to  pain  him.  The  text  was  characteristic  of  the 
man  and  was  from  Zechariah  iv.  10:  "For  who  hath 
despised  the  day  of  small  things  ?"  The  pastor  of  the 
Church  was  Rev.  L.  B.  Davidson,  a  venerable  man, 
who  had  known  Dr.  Morton  from  his  youth  and  was 
an  old  friend  of  the  Morton  family  at  Russellville.  In 
the  afternoon  Dr.  Morton  had  a  chill,  and  that  night 
medical  aid  was  summoned.     He  passed  a  restless 

194 


DAVID    MORTON 


night,  and  on  Monday  morning  the  physicians  and  sur- 
geons in  attendance  pronounced  his  condition  critical 
from  blood-poisoning.  In  spite  of  the  best  medical 
skill,  he  grew  steadily  worse  and  died  Wednesday 
morning,  March  9,  1898. 

On  March  loth  the  funeral  services  were  conducted 
at  the  Walnut  Street  Church,  at  Fifth  and  Walnut 
Streets.  All  religious  denominations  were  represented, 
and  the  house  was  crowded  to  overflowing.  Rev.  George 
Needham  gave  out  the  hymn,  "J^sus,  Lover  of  My 
Soul,"  and  prayer  was  offered  by  Rev.  B.  F.  Biggs, 
followed  by  another  hymn,  "God  of  My  Life,  Whose 
Gracious  Power  through  Various  Deaths  My  Soul 
Has  Led,"  announced  by  Rev.  J.  S.  Scobee.  Rev. 
Henry  D.  Moore  read  the  Ninetieth  Psalm,  and  Rev. 
M.  B.  Chapman,  pastor  of  the  Church,  read  the  fif- 
teenth chapter  of  First  Corinthians.  The  principal 
addresses  were  made  by  Bishop  R.  K.  Hargrove  and 
Rev.  John  W.  Lewis,  D.D.,  presiding  elder  of  the 
Louisville  District.  The  concluding  hymn  was,  "Serv- 
ant of  God,  Well  Done!  Rest  from  Thy  Loved  Em- 
ploy" ;  and  the  final  prayer  was  offered  by  Rev.  L.  B. 
Davidson,  the  oldest  minister  in  the  Louisville  Confer- 
ence, the  benediction  being  pronounced  by  Bishop  Har- 
grove. My  only  regret  is  that  no  report  ipsissima 
verba  of  the  addresses  delivered  on  this  occasion  by 
Bishop  Hargrove  and  Dr.  Lewis  was  taken  down. 

195 


DAVID    MORTON 


As  was  most  appropriate,  the  remains  of  Dr.  Mor- 
ton were  taken  on  the  morning  of  the  eleventh  to  Rus- 
sellville,  Kentucky,  for  burial.  Literally  scores  of  his 
dearest  kindred  are  interred  there,  and  he  had  always 
expected  to  lie  beside  them  when  his  end  should  come. 
Till  the  morning  of  the  twelfth  the  casket  containing 
the  body  rested  at  The  Knob,  the  old  family  seat,  the 
old  home  of  his  father  and  of  his  own  childhood  and 
early  manhood.  Let  it  be  said  again  that  nothing  could 
have  been  more  fit.  A  special  press  dispatch  of  that 
date  from  Russellville  deserves  to  be  incorporated  in 
this  narrative: 

The  great  love  and  esteem  in  which  the  late  Dr.  David 
Morton  was  held  by  the  people  of  this  city,  his  native 
town,  were  amply  attested  by  the  large  assemblage  which 
congregated  at  the  graveside  tcv-day,  when  his  remains 
were  laid  to  rest  in  the  Maple  Grove  Cemetery.  But  few 
men  had  attained  to  that  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
of  Russellville  and  Logan  County  held  by  this  great  and 
good  man.  The  burial  took  place  at  ten  o'clock  this 
morning  from  the  residence  of  Judge  James  H.  Bowden, 
the  services  being  conducted  by  Revs.  James  A.  Lewis,  of 
this  city,  H.  C.  Settle,  of  Bowling  Green,  and  H.  C.  Mor- 
rison, of  Atlanta.  A  touching  incident  at  the  grave  was 
the  presence  of  two  old  negro  men,  servants  of  the  family, 
who,  with  tears  streaming  down  their  cheeks,  gently  and 
tenderly  shoveled  the  earth  over  the  casket. 

The  Board  of  Church  Extension  met  promptly  and 
passed  the  following  resolutions : 

196 


Q  ^ 


c   1^ 
o  ^ 


DAVID    MORTON 


Dr.  David  Morton  is  dead,  and  the  Church  mourns.  A 
leader  has  been  called  home,  one  whose  arduous  labors 
and  wise  counsels  have  for  many  years  been  fruitful  of 
great  good  to  the  cause  of  Christ  and  of  inestimable  value 
to  Methodism, 

Whatever  the  charge  intrusted  to  him,  whether  the 
country  circuit  or  station,  a  presiding  elder's  district  in 
the  crowded  metropolis  of  his  native  State,  or  embracing 
vast  areas  in  the  then  unsettled  Northwest,  or  as  burden 
bearer  for  the  whole  Church  in  the  ample  field  where  for 
sixteen  years  past  his  magnificent  abilities  have  found 
adequate  and  congenial  employment,  he  was  found  ever 
ready  and  fully  equipped.  Never  hesitating,  never  falter- 
ing, bravely,  trustingly  pressing  forward  by  his  devotion 
and  ability  alike  in  the  lowest  and  highest  position  to  suc- 
cess, was  his  fixed  habit.  He  perhaps  never  failed  in  any 
enterprise  undertaken  for  Christ  and  the  Church. 

He  was,  indeed,  a  man  of  one  work — the  ministry  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  While  he  comprehended  the  vastness 
of  the  interests  of  Zion  and  aspired  to  the  accomplishment 
of  great  things  by  his  own  efforts,  God  helping,  he  was 
ever  most  watchful  as  to  even  the  minutest  details  of  any- 
thing intrusted  to  him.  If  his  example  be  faithfully  fol- 
lowed by  those  who  remain  and  by  them  that  come  after, 
how  rapid  may  prove  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  upon  earth,  the  triumph  of  the  mission  of  Jesus ! 

As  his  associates  on  the  Board  of  Church  Extension 
we  shall  miss  his  labors  and  counsels  beyond  expression, 
as  a  friend  and  brother  beloved  we  shall  ever  remember 
with  joy  and  gratitude  our  association  with  him,  and  we 
will  endeavor,  while  spared,  to  profit  by  the  precious  les- 
sons of  love  and  devotion  exemplified  in  his  life. 

We  tender  our  sincere  sympathy  to  the  family,  the  wid-^ 
ow,  children,  and  grandchildren,  so  sorely  bereaved  and 

197 


DAVID    MORTON 


commend  them  to  the  watch-care  and  keeping  of  Him 
whom  the  departed  loved  and  served  so  faithfully. 

The  Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission  Soci- 
ety promptly  followed  with  an  utterance  of  like  char- 
acter : 

While  the  entire  Church  is  filled  with  mourning  over 
the  loss  of  this  Prince  in  Israel,  the  members  of  the 
Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission  Society,  with 
which  he  was  officially  connected,  are  peculiarly  bereaved. 
As  Dr.  Morton  was  ever  the  loyal  champion  and  wise  and 
able  advocate  of  the  organization,  as  a  body  and  as  indi- 
viduals the  society  has  suffered  a  bereavement  second 
only  to  that  so  recently  sustained  in  the  loss  of  Miss  Helm. 
These  two  leaders,  colaborers  in  life,  were  conquerors  in 
death.  Dr.  Morton  was  connected  with  the  earliest  be- 
ginnings of  the  Woman's  Parsonage  and  Home  Mission 
Society.  He  aided  in  framing  its  constitution,  in  winning 
for  it  gifts  and  friends,  in  guarding  its  funds,  in  seeking 
its  advancement,  and  in  directing  its  policy.  As  Secre- 
tary of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension,  with  unswerving 
fidelity  and  unremitting  devotion  he  gave  himself  to  the 
high  commission  intrusted  to  him  by  the  Church.  His 
exact  and  faithful  attention  to  all  the  details  of  business, 
his  jealous  care  of  the  funds  of  the  Board,  and  his  per- 
sonal devotion  to  God  should  be  an  example  and  an  un- 
failing inspiration  to  every  woman  engaged  in  the  work 
of  the  organization.  It  was  dear  to  Dr.  Morton  because 
his  far-seeing  eye  and  keen  business  judgment  saw  in  it 
great  possibilities  for  the  growth  of  the  Church.  The 
society  should  plight  itself  anew  to  more  earnest  endeavor 
to  bring  about  the  almost  ideal  condition  for  which  he 
longed  and  labored,  when  every  itinerant  preacher's  home 

198 


DAVID    MORTON 


shall  be  a  home  indeed.  Doubtless  there  will  be  many 
who  will  speak  more  eloquently  and  more  worthily  of  him 
and  his  work ;  but  no  words  can  be  more  sincere  than  the 
loving  tribute  from  those  who  will  cherish  his  memory 
and  strive  to  live,  as  did  he,  for  the  good  of  man  and  the 
glory  of  God. 

The  Board  of  Missions,  in  brief  but  fitting  language, 
likewise  gave  voice  to  its  sorrow : 

A  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Missions  was  held  in  the 
Mission  Rooms  March  i6,  1898,  to  take  action  concerning 
the  death  of  Dr.  David  Morton.  After  remarks  express- 
ing the  highest  appreciation  of  his  personal  worth  and 
work,  the  following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopt- 
ed: 

"The  members  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  while  not  yet  recovered 
from  the  shock  of  surprise  and  grief  at  the  announcement 
of  the  death  of  Rev.  David  Morton,  D.D.,  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Church  Extension  of  the  said  Church,  feel 
an  increasing  sense  of  the  loss  sustained  thereby.  There- 
fore 

"Resolved:  i.  That,  while  we  mourn  our  loss,  we  thank 
God  for  giving  to  the  Church  for  so  long  a  period  the 
service  of  a  man  so  specially  suited  to  the  functions  to 
which  he  was  called. 

"2.  That  in  Dr.  Morton  were  happily  combined  the  ab- 
solute fidelity  to  duty,  the  energy,  and  the  sagacity  that 
made  him  conspicuously  successful  in  the  great  work 
committed  to  his  hands.  The  work  he  has  done  will  be 
his  monument. 

"3.  That  to  his  bereaved  family  we  tender  our  heartfelt 
sympathy  in  this  their  great  sorrow,  deeply  realizing  our 

199 


DAVID    MORTON 


own  loss  as  his  personal  friends  as  well  as  official  cola- 
borers." 

All  the  Church  papers  carried  elatx>rate  and  tender 
notices  of  his  life  and  death.  In  the  references  to  him 
there  was  not  a  single  dissonant  note.  If  any  words 
of  criticism  had  ever  been  spoken  of  him  while  he  was 
living,  there  was  not  one  word  except  in  praise  when 
he  was  dead.  Everybody  saw  now  what  most  people 
had  seen  all  the  time,  that  his  character  was  as  sound  as 
heart  of  oak  and  that  his  long  years  of  service  had  been 
utterly  free  from  any  base  taint  of  selfishness. 

In  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Church  Ex- 
tension his  dear  friend,  Dr.  John  W.  Lewis,  read  a  no- 
ble paper  containing  many  biographical  touches  and  a 
most  judicious  estimate  of  his  manifold  abilities.  I 
draw  from  it  a  few  paragraphs : 

To  delineate  the  man  himself  is  not  difficult  because  of 
the  many  marked  traits  of  character.  Physically,  Dr. 
Morton  was  a  striking  personality,  easily  noticeable  in  any 
gathering,  and  even  a  stranger  casually  meeting  him  on 
the  street  would  look  at  him  twice  before  passing  him  by. 
Nature  had  given  him  a  large  body,  well  rounded  and 
closely  compacted,  evidently  designed  for  hardship  and 
endurance.  His  mobile  face  was  often  grave  and  im- 
passive, seldom  severe,  and  usually  calm,  benignant,  and 
sunny.  That  he  was  good-natured  was  also  evident.  His 
fine  flow  of  humor  made  him  a  delightful  companion  in 
the  social  circle  and  in  travel  and  won  him  many  friends. 
He  was  a  fine  story-teller  and  knew  well  how  to  select  and 

200 


DAVID    MORTON 


time  his  anecdotes.  .  .  .  His  sensibilities  were  delicate 
and  refined  to  a  high  degree,  so  that  he  was  a  gentleman, 
but  without  affectation.  He  never  forgot  a  kindness. 
One  day  in  his  boyhood,  while  at  a  country  meetinghouse, 
where  the  services  seemed  to  him  interminable,  he  was 
approached  by  a  farmer,  who  said  to  him,  "Little  boy, 
ain't  you  hungry?"  and  receiving  the  reply  that  he  was, 
the  old  man  took  him  to  his  wagon  and  gave  him  some- 
thing to  eat.  He  ate  and  was  grateful.  He  called  that 
man's  name  and  spoke  of  the  incident  often  even  in  his 
later  years.  He  was  quick  to  resent  an  act  of  injustice 
to  himself  or  others,  in  such  terms  as  it  deserved,  yet 
was  always  knightly  toward  his  antagonist.  He  has  been 
known  to  demolish  an  adversary  with  one  stroke,  descend- 
ing swiftly  and  suddenly,  as  a  thunderbolt  of  Jove,  and 
do  it  smilingly.  His  sympathies  were  never  aroused  in 
vain.  Soon  after  his  death  an  old  blind  Irishman,  whom 
Dr.  Morton  had  long  known  and  often  befriended,  was 
asked  if  he  had  heard  of  the  Doctor's  death.  He  replied : 
"O  yes;  and  Oi'm  a-missin'  Docthor  Morton,  Oi'm 
a-missin'  Docthor  Morton."  It  was  he  who  had  given 
this  poor  man  the  shoes  he  then  wore  and,  when  the  soles 
were  gone,  had  them  replaced  with  new  ones. 

Dr.  Morton  was  noted  for  his  strong  will,  which  was 
well-nigh  invincible.  His  general  character  in  this  regard 
was  Napoleonic,  but  controlled  by  grace.  He  made  no 
provision  for  failure.  On  one  occasion  he  said  to  a 
friend,  who  had  expressed  some  fear  that  a  certain  meas- 
ure he  had  in  hand,  involving  the  interest  of  the  Church, 
might  fail:  "I  usually  succeed  in  whatever  I' undertake." 
And  later  he  said :  "I  will  not  fail."    He  did  not.    .    .    . 

What  a  memory  he  had  !  Some  one  has  said  in  homely 
phrase :  "It  was  like  a  tar  barrel  that  catches  everything 

20 1 


DAVID    MORTON 


and  drops  nothing."  With  it  he  gathered  valuable  stores 
of  historical  data,  a  rich  fund  of  anecdote,  incidents  of 
travel,  witticisms,  and  quaint  sayings  without  number. 
This  faculty  insured  accurate  and  permanent  knowledge 
and  qualified  him  for  writing  history.  He  was  the  author 
of  several  biographical  sketches  and  not  a  few  historical 
papers. 

His  faculty  for  details  and  generalization  was  noted 
and  remarked  by  all  who  knew  him.  He  did  not  lose 
sight  of  the  microcosm  in  the  macrocosm,  the  lesser  in 
the  greater.    His  motto  was :  "Take  care  for  the  littles." 

He  could  see  more  things  and  more  men  and  more 
points  of  interest  in  them  in  a  day's  travel  than  an  ordi- 
nary man  would  observe  in  a  much  longer  period.  He 
often  preached  from  the  text,  "Who  hath  despised  the  day 
of  small  things?"  which  was  the  subject  of  his  last  ser- 
mon, preached  in  Asbury  Chapel,  a  little  mission  church 
in  the  city  of  Louisville.  He  could  take  cognizance  of 
"a  primrose  by  the  river's  brim"  and  find  in  it  all  there 
is  in  the  solar  and  terrestrial  spheres  and  back  of  them 
the  infinite  God,  yet  he  scarcely  cared  for  the  scientific 
process  of  terms.  To  him  the  lesson  of  the  littles  was  all 
of  it.  How  many  and  what  a  variety  of  things  he  could 
hold  in  his  mind  through  the  worry  of  a  Board  meeting 
or  a  Conference  session  and  never  once  trip !    .    .    . 

Of  his  Christian  character,  we  have  already  given  not 
a  few  hints.  He  was  a  living  epistle,  known  and  read  of 
all  men.  Theoretically  and  experimentally,  he  was  a 
Methodist  to  his  heart's  heart  and  true  to  his  Church  and 
ordination  vows.  When  called  to  the  West  in  1876,  he 
conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood,  but  left  wife  and 
children,  some  of  them  yet  small,  to  be  gone  for  a  whole 
year,  remarking  before  taking  the  train:  "It  is  as  near 

202 


DAVID    MORTON 


to  heaven  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  it  is  from  Ken- 
tucky." Those  who  read  his  letters,  "From  the  Far 
West,"  in  the  Church  and  other  papers  will  recall  the 
cheerful,  hopeful  spirit  which  they  breathed  and  his  deep 
devotion  to  the  Master's  cause  in  that  far-away  field.  He 
would  readily  respond  to  the  known  will  of  God  in  any 
direction  and  at  any  hazard. 

A  few  months  later  Dr.  Gross  Alexander,  who  was 
also  a  Conference  colleague  and  a  strong  personal 
friend  of  Dr.  Morton,  published  under  the  head  of  "A 
Personal  Tribute''  an  article  of  uncommon  value,  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made  in  the  forego- 
ing pages  and  a  considerable  portion  of  which  I  sub- 
join here : 

He  could  do  more  things,  and  do  them  well,  than  any 
man  I  have  ever  known.  And  when  he  undertook  any- 
thing, great  or  small,  it  had  to  go,  and  it  went.  The 
word  "failure"  was  not  in  his  vocabulary.  We  have 
noted  his  success  in  some  of  the  great  enterprises  of  his 
life.  In  smaller  but  hardly  less  difficult  undertakings  he 
kept  at  work  with  a  persistence  that  would  not  let  go  till 
he  succeeded.  He  wanted  the  jubilee  address  of  the  semi- 
centennial session  of  the  Louisville  Conference  published 
in  book  form  for  permanent  preservation.  There  was  not 
a  dollar  of  money  in  sight,  and  nobody  took  any  interest 
in  it  but  himself.  And  yet  the  book  was  published  and 
paid  for  beforehand. 

He  was  a  good  writer  and  a  strong  speaker.  He  had 
an  excellent  command  of  English;  and  whether  on  the 
platform  or  on  paper,  he  expressed  himself  with  unam- 
biguous clearness  and  virile  vigor.    Sometimes  his  sudden 

203 


DAVID    MORTON 


bursts  of  impassioned  emotion  in  public  speech  were  ir- 
resistible and  carried  everything  before  them,  as  when 
he  spoke  for  the  admission  of  a  worthy  but  elderly  Baptist 
minister  into  the  Louisville  Conference  at  the  session  of 

1895. 

David  Morton  was  in  the  fullest  sense  a  child  of  nature. 
He  was,  I  believe,  the  most  unaffected,  the  most  unsophis- 
ticated— in  short,  the  most  natural — man  of  his  ability  and 
position  that  I  have  ever  known.  His  impatience  with 
fads  and  shams  was  not  less  strong  and  much  more  gen- 
uine than  that  of  the  resounding  growler,  Thomas  Car- 
lyle.  He  loved  "nature  in  her  visible  forms,"  and  he 
loved  naturalness  in  men  and  women. 

He  was  one  of  the  most  genial  of  men.  All  classes  of 
people  loved  him  and  enjoyed  his  company — great  states- 
men and  churchmen,  plain  everyday  folks,  children,  and 
negroes.  When  he  was  my  presiding  elder,  he  was  on 
the  occasion  of  quarterly  meetings  always  my  guest,  and 
his  visits  to  our  humble  parsonage  home  were  eagerly 
looked  forward  to  by  everybody  in  the  house  and  as  keen- 
ly enjoyed  by  the  children  as  by  their  parents. 

The  Nashville  Preachers'  Meeting  adopted  a  brief 
report,  probably  written  by  Dr.  J.  C.  Morris,  every 
word  of  which  shows  that  it  was  duly  weighed  and 
considered : 

We  bow  our  hearts  in  sincere  sorrow  at  the  death  of 
our  brother  beloved,  Rev.  David  Morton,  D.D.,  recogniz- 
ing his  high  worth  as  a  man,  as  a  General  Conference 
officer,  and  as  a  Christian  minister. 

He  was  a  gentleman,  having  the  strength  of  a  man 
combined  with  the  purity  and  gentleness  of  a  woman. 

204 


DAVID    MORTON 


He  was  never  sinister,  but  always  straightforward.  He 
was  never  selfish,  but  always  broadly  generous.  He  was 
never  uncertain,  but  always  transparent.  He  was  a  broth- 
er born  for  adversity,  a  friend  who  was  always  self-sac- 
rificing and  helpful  to  others.  With  these  elements  of 
character  he  drew  about  him  a  wide  circle  of  the  best 
friends. 

As  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Church  Extension  he 
was  wise  and  laborious,  rising  to  the  point  of  greatness  in 
his  mastery  of  details.  He  was  the  embodiment  of  this 
arm  of  the  Church's  service.  His  devotion  to  the  work 
was  complete  abandon.  It  was  his  meat  and  drink.  He 
loved  the  work  and  gave  to  it  all  the  resources  he  had, 
and  its  success  is  the  result  of  that  devotion.  He  made 
it  what  it  is. 

As  a  Christian  minister  he  was  a  worthy  successor  in 
the  long  line  of  noble  spirits  who  have  preached  the  gos- 
pel with  power  and  illustrated  it  in  their  daily  lives.  He 
was  as  plain  and  simple  in  his  faith  as  a  little  child,  and 
when  he  preached  all  understood  and  felt  the  truth.  He 
adorned  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour. 

We  do  not  know  the  extent  of  the  loss  we  have  sus- 
tained. Every  year  as  it  comes  and  goes  will  emphasize 
his  worth  and  our  loss,  but  no  man  can  put  metes  and 
bounds  about  it  yet.  He  has  gone  from  us  a  few  days 
only,  but  his  monument  is  built,  more  indestructible  than 
brass.  When  Sir  Christopher  Wren  died,  his  body  was 
laid  to  rest  under  the  choir  of  St.  Paul's,  in  London,  and 
on  the  tablet  over  the  inner  north  doorway  is  his  epitaph : 
Si  monumenHim  reqniris,  circumspice.  In  the  years  to 
come,  as  the  children  of  Methodism  hear  the  name  of  this 
honored  servant  of  the  Church,  we  will  point  to  this 
widening  work  of  Church  Extension  and  repeat:  "If  you 

205 


DAVID    MORTON 


seek  his  monument,  look  about  you."    That  record  is  his 
memorial. 

In  many  widely  different  cities  memorial  meetings 
were  held  in  Dr.  Morton's  honor,  and  from  every  point 
of  the  compass  letters  of  condolence  poured  in  on  his 
family. 

At  the  General  Conference  in  May  following  due 
respect  was  shown  for  his  great  and  good  name  in 
many  ways.  The  Committee  on  Church  Extension  in 
that  body,  of  which  Dr.  James  D.  Barbee  was  Chair- 
man, included  in  its  report,  among  other  things : 

In  the  death  of  the  Rev.  David  Morton,  D.D.,  Corre- 
sponding Secretary  of  the  Board,  which  occurred  on 
March  9,  1898,  the  Board  and  the  Church  suffered  a  well- 
nigh  irreparable  loss.  To  quote  the  language  used  by 
the  Board  in  its  report  to  your  body,  "What  Church  Ex- 
tension is  among  us,  he  made  it.  By  tireless  industry, 
indomitable  energy,  passionate  devotion  to  one  work,  out 
of  formless  void  he  created,  then  organized  and  directed, 
our  Church  Extension  Department  with  such  phenomenal 
success  as  to  cause  his  name  to  be  enshrined  among  those 
of  our  greatest  leaders.  The  history  of  the  Church  can- 
not be  written  without  giving  a  large  place  to  him,  and 
the  history  of  the  first  sixteen  years  of  our  Church  Ex- 
tension work  is  simply  his  history." 

In  different  parts  of  the  Church  and  in  many  ways 
steps  were  taken  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Morton's  death  to 
show  honor  to  his  memory.  In  addition  to  the  numer- 
ous meetings  which  were  held  and  the  eulogistic  reso- 

206 


DAVID    MORTON 


lutions  which  were  passed,  as  shown  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  more  permanent  measures  were  adopted  in  va- 
rious quarters,  all  looking  in  the  same  direction.  At 
Monteagle,  Tennessee,  for  example,  the  seat  of  the 
great  summer  assembly,  the  trustees  of  the  beautiful 
house  of  worship,  which  was  then  in  process  of  erection, 
and  in  the  building  of  which  Dr.  Morton  was  deeply  in- 
terested, unanimously  resolved  to  call  it  Morton  Me- 
morial Church.  It  is  built  of  the  finest  pink  sandstone 
after  plans  of  a  thoroughly  competent  architect,  and 
from  the  lowest  foundation  to  the  top  of  the  tower 
is  without  a  single  cheap  or  shoddy  feature.  Nobody 
that  has  examined  it  has  failed  to  be  impressed  by  its 
chaste  simplicity  and  solidity.  Between  the  character 
of  the  structure  and  the  character  of  the  man  whom  it 
commemorates  there  is  a  close  correspondence.  Stand- 
ing, as  it  does,  on  the  Cumberland  Plateau,  in  a  fine 
grove  of  native  forest  trees  and  at  a  gathering  place 
for  scores  of  thousands  of  good  and  intelligent  people 
from  all  over  the  South,  it  will  help  to  keep  fresh  and 
green  the  memory  of  the  great  Secretary  for  many 
generations.  The  illustration  which  is  herewith  pre- 
sented faithfully  reproduces  its  main  outlines,  but 
scarcely  conveys  a  full  conception  of  its  attractiveness. 
All  the  windows  are  of  the  best  quality  of  art  glass; 
and  the  whole  interior,  without  ornamentation  of  any 
sort,  is  uniquely  beautiful. 

207 


DAVID    MORTON 


When  the  Annual  Conferences  began  to  come  on  in 
the  Fall,  not  one  of  them  failed  to  take  action  suitably 
expressing  its  high  estimate  of  the  value  of  Dr.  Mor- 
ton's services  and  its  deep  sense  of  loss  in  his  death. 
No  man  ever  died  in  the  Methodist  Church  and  left  a 
pleasanter  memory  behind  him.  Nor  was  it  from  his 
own  Church  alone  that  there  came  a  stream  of  affec- 
tionate tributes. 

It  was  a  fair  recognition  of  the  breadth  and  catho- 
licity of  his  nature  that  ministers  and  laymen  of  all  the 
Churches  should  speak  out  their  great  respect  for  him. 
A  specimen  of  these  generous  words  from  beyond  the 
limits  of  his  own  fold  is  taken  from  the  Courier-Jour- 
nal of  March  14,  1898: 

Dr.  Carter  Helm  Jones  yesterday,  at  Broadway  Baptist 
Church,  paid  an  appreciative  tribute  to  the  great  and 
good  man,  Dr.  David  Morton,  deceased.  He  said :  "Since 
we  last  met  there  a  Prince  of  God  has  passed  away  from 
our  city,  making  the  world  poorer  and  heaven  richer.  For 
such  a  man  to  die  is  to  leave  a  rich  heritage  of  Christian 
character.  I  was  absent  from  the  city  when  his  end  came, 
and  I  take  this  occasion  to  lay  an  humble  flower  on  his 
grave." 

The  secular  journals  also  were  equally  unreserved  in 
their  expressions  of  regret.  The  passing  of  so  manly 
a  man  seemed  to  call  out  all  the  latent  magnanimity  of 
his  community  and  State.    In  an  editorial  the  Courier- 

208 


DAVID    MORTON 


Journal  spoke  of  Dr.  Morton  in  the  most  eulogistic 
manner,  closing  with  the  words : 

The  Rev.  Dr.  David  Morton,  whose  life  work  has  just 
been  closed  in  this  city,  was,  as  he  always  proudly  de- 
clared, a  typical  Methodist  preacher.  He  had  all  the  zeal, 
courage,  and  self-sacrifice  with  which  the  great  Wesley 
inspired  his  ministry.  He  was  also  a  broad-minded  and 
manly  man.  Such  clergymen  as  he  inspire  confidence  in 
even  the  most  worldly  and  show  how  far  removed  from 
a  milk-sop  is  a  true  follower  of  the  Cross.  In  the  best 
sense  of  the  word,  he  was  a  Christian  soldier  who  left 
the  world  in  every  way  better  for  having  lived  in  it. 

The  bishops  of  his  Church  joined  in  the  general 
chorus  of  praise.  Bishop  Keener,  the  venerable  senior 
of  the  college,  spoke  as  follows : 

He  has  left  a  blessed  record  as  one  of  God's  workmen. 
"Yea,"  saith  the  Spirit,  "he  rests  from  his  labors,  and  his 
works  do  follow  him."  What  a  vast  company  will  rise  up 
to  pronounce  blessings  on  his  memory !  I  feel  as  if  I  had 
lost  a  brother,  we  were  so  intimate. 

Bishop  Key  was  equally  unequivocal  in  his  commen- 
dation : 

He  was  among  the  best  friends  of  my  life.  Years  ago 
— nearly  twenty — we  met  first.  We  were  then  compara- 
tively young  and  full  of  desire  to  work  for  the  Master. 
Since  then  we  have  drawn  closer  together  year  by  year. 
Year  before  last  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  him  for 
my  traveling  companion  down  through  Mexico.  We  were 
together  day  and  night  for  a  month.  I  shall  always  re- 
14  209 


DAVID   MORTON 


joice  that  I  had  that  privilege.    We  came  to  know  each 
other  more  fully  and  to  love  one  another  better. 

Bishop  Granbery,  the  incarnation  of  simplicity,  spoke 

without  reserve: 

I  loved  Dr.  Morton  as  a  personal  friend  and  honored 
him  as  a  devoted  and  valuable  servant  of  the  Church.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he  satisfied  the  Church  in  the 
zeal  and  ability  with  which  he  discharged  his  difficult  and 
most  important  office.  God  has  taken  from  us  a  leader 
of  noble  character  and  gift,  after  a  long  service  of  marked 
fidelity  and  usefulness.  I  enjoyed  his  society,  loved  to 
talk  freely  with  him,  and  looked  forward  with  eagerness 
year  after  year  to  the  privilege  of  meeting  him  in  his  own 
home  and  elsewhere. 

Bishop  Galloway,  the  eloquent,  uncovered  his  heart 
thus: 

But  none  the  less  do  I  miss  my  genial  and  noble  friend. 
The  splendid  picture  that  appropriately  hangs  on  the 
walls  of  the  office  brought  vividly  to  mind  our  days  of 
travel  and  labor  together.  Happy  days  they  were  and 
rich  in  memories  of  a  soul  as  great  as  he  was  good.  I 
had  to  turn  away,  lest  the  mist  in  my  eyes  should  obscure 
the  fine  lines  of  an  almost  perfect  portrait.  But  I  have 
one  more  delicately  colored  and  highly  prized  than  that 
— one  that  is  framed  and  hung  in  the  gallery  of  the  heart, 
which  time  can  never  fade  and  the  cares  of  this  world 
can  never  corrode. 

Bishop  Duncan  was  very  gentle  and  tender : 

I  loved  him  very  much,  as  you  well  know ;  loved  him 
as  men  rarely  love  each  other.    My  comfort  is  very  great 

210 


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DAVID    MORTON 


as  I  think  of  his  great  fidelity  to  his  Lord  and  the  wonder- 
ful work  he  has  accomplished  in  the  Church. 

Bishop  Fitzgerald,  as  he  always  did,  used  most  be- 
fitting words : 

I  feel  the  loss  of  one  of  the  truest,  dearest  friends  of 
my  life.  Not  lost,  thank  God,  but  gone  before.  We  will 
go  to  him,  grace  assisting  us.  The  whole  Church  mourns 
the  death  of  its  devoted  servant. 

It  cannot  be  amiss,  in  closing  my  labors,  to  add  here 
a  few  pages  written  by  Daniel  Morton,  M.D.,  of  St. 
Joseph,  Missouri,  at  the  time  of  his  father's  death.  His 
filial  piety  in  gathering  and  preserving  the  material 
that  has  made  my  own  work  a  possibility  cannot  be  too 
highly  praised.  Out  of  his  heart  he  has  written  as 
only  a  true  and  noble  son  could  write  of  a  true  and 
noble  father: 

He  was  five  feet  eight  inches  tall  and  weighed  about 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  pounds.  He  impre-ssed  one 
as  being  a  large  man.  His  hands  and  feet  were  small. 
His  hair  was  white  and  brushed  back  from  the  forehead. 
His  eyes  were  a  light  blue  with  a  kindly  expression  and 
a  twinkle  indicative  of  unfailing  humor.  His  nose  was 
prominent  and  slightly  aquiline.  His  mouth  was  not 
large,  but  firmly  set  and  reenforced  with  a  well-propor- 
tioned jaw.  His  ears  were  very  large,  but  closely  hugged 
the  head,  while  his  neck  was  very  short.  He  was  clean 
shaven,  and  as  he  talked  the  expression  of  his  face 
changed  with  every  thought.  He  usually  dressed  in  a 
black  Prince  Albert  coat,  standing  collar,  bow  tie,  and 

211 


DAVID    MORTON 


soft  hat.  His  carriage  was  erect.  He  was  always  alert, 
quick-motioned,  and  active.  His  appearance  was  not 
distinctly  clerical.  The  sleeping  car  porters  usually  called 
him  "Judge."  His  mind  was  both  analytic  and  synthet- 
ic. He  was  not  given  to  flights  of  imagination.  His 
sermons  were  practical,  adapted  to  everyday  life,  and  de- 
livered with  such  earnestness  and  directness  as  to  impress 
indelibly  the  ideas  he  intended  to  convey.  They  were 
never  long,  rarely  exceeding  forty-five  minutes  of  time  in 
delivery.  As  a  platform  speaker  and  debater  he  excelled 
and  was  perfectly  at  home  when  making  a  Church  Exten- 
sion speech.  His  arguments  hung  together  logically. 
When  thoroughly  aroused  on  any  subject,  his  whole  body 
seemed  transformed.  His  eyes  flashed,  his  breath  came 
in  gasps,  and  his  voice  sounded  like  a  trumpet.  He  in- 
spired every  one  with  a  belief  in  his  perfect  sincerity  of 
opinion.  His  opponents  could  seldom  overcome  the  im- 
pression he  made  upon  his  hearers.  When  once  convinced 
that  he  was  right,  it  mattered  not  to  him  if  all  the  world 
held  otherwise,  he  would  maintain  his  position  without 
wavering.  He  had  wonderful  powers  of  concentration  of 
mind  and  was  often  considered  absent-minded  on  this 
account.  His  ability  in  afifairs  of  detail  was  unusual  and 
made  him  accurate  in  everything.  In  finances  he  could 
always  accoimt  for  every  cent  that  passed  through  his 
hands.  He  was  a  keen  observer  of  men  and  was  accus- 
tomed to  say  that  from  this  pursuit  he  derived  the  keenest 
mental  pleasure.  He  was  absolutely  loyal  to  his  friends. 
He  would  do  anything  for  them  or  their  children.  He 
never  forgot  a  favor.  He  was  not  easily  discouraged,  but 
was  a  tireless  worker.  He  undertook  great  labors  and 
never  relaxed  his  efforts  until  success  was  achieved.  He 
could  not  be  turned  back  when  once  he  put  his  hand  to  the 

212 


DAVID    MORTON 


plow.  He  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  weaker  natures. 
He  was  deeply  religious  and  was  guided  in  all  his  ways 
by  unalterable  principles,  yet  he  was  devoid  of  bigotry. 
His  Christian  experience  is  the  keynote  to  all  his  life 
work.  He  was  charitable  to  a  fault  and  never  refused  an 
appeal  from  any  one.  He  used  to  say  that  he  would  rather 
help  nine  undeserving  applicants  than  run  the  risk  of 
turning  away  one  who  really  was  needy.  He  gave  away 
during  his  lifetime  large  amounts  of  money.  Of  these 
charities  he  never  spoke.  He  always  had  a  lot  of  depend- 
ents who  looked  to  him  for  help  to  keep  the  wolf  from 
the  door.  In  his  will  he  said:  "To  religious  objects  I 
have  bequeathed  nothing,  because  I  have  heretofore  given 
these  more  than  is  herein  devised  to  any  one,  if  not  to  all, 
of  my  children."  Socially,  he  was  the  peer  of  any  man. 
He  could  mix  with  any  strata  of  society — the  rich,  the 
well-to-do,  the  poor,  the  educated,  the  uneducated.  He 
had  an  unfailing  sense  of  humor  and  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  anecdotes.  He  could  entertain  by  the  hour  with 
the  recital  of  his  experiences  while  traveling  in  America 
and  abroad.  He  loved  immensely  a  good  joke  and  was  a 
happy  story-teller.  He  was  the  life  of  any  company  in 
which  he  was  thrown.  While  traveling  on  the  train  he 
was  often  surrounded  by  a  crowd  drawn  by  his  ability  in 
this  direction.  In  repose  his  face  was  at  times  solemn. 
His  knowledge  of  names  and  family  connections  was  mar- 
velous. He  never  forgot  anything  of  this  kind  and  doubt- 
less at  the  time  of  his  death  was  the  best-informed  man 
in  Kentucky  on  the  family  relationships  of  that  State. 
He  could  always  find  some  one  on  the  train  whom  he 
knew.  He  was  a  great  man  with  great  endowments — 
physical,  social,  religious,  and  mental.  He  would  have 
been  preeminent  in  any  other  calling  had  he  entered  upon 

213 


DAVID    MORTON 


it.  His  make-up  was  such  as  to  insure  success  anywhere. 
The  results  of  his  life  are  shown  in  the  works  which  he 
did,  in  the  sunshine  which  he  scattered  along  his  pathway, 
in  the  love  which  he  gave  to  those  near  and  dear  to  him, 
and  in  the  precious  memories  of  a  noble  life  which  remain 
to  all  his  friends  like  the  sweet-scented  breath  of  a  gentle 
breeze  wafted  o'er  fields  of  beautiful  flowers. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  in  writing  this  biography  to 
tell  all  that  might  be  told  concerning  Dr.  Morton.  On 
the  contrary,  I  have  sought  to  furnish  my  readers  with 
only  such  information  as  would  enable  them  to  frame 
a  correct  general  estimate  of  his  abilities  and  his 
achievements.  If  I  have  not  already  accomplished  that 
end,  it  would  be  vain  for  me  to  make  any  further  ef- 
fort to  do  so. 

With  these  sentences  I  lay  down  my  pen,  glad  that 
it  has  been  my  distinguished  privilege  to  assist  in  pre- 
serving to  the  Church  of  the  future  some  recollection 
of  my  honored  friend  and  brother,  and  only  sorry  that, 
owing  to  circumstances  beyond  my  control,  I  have  not 
done  my  work  with  greater  adequacy.  In  that  fair 
land  which  is  filling  up  so  rapidly  in  later  years  with 
my  emigrant  loved  ones  from  this  world  I  shall  hope 
to  find  again  the  face  of  honest,  sturdy,  great-hearted, 
and  devout  David  Morton. 

214 


The  Ancestry  of  David  Morton 

Fac-simile  of  the  Morton  Family  Tree.  A  large  amount  of  informa- 
tion concerning-  the  Morton  and  allied  families  can  be  found  in  the 
Virginia  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography  and  in  the  William 
and  Mary  Quarterly  Magazine. 


V 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
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